The Unlikely Survivors
by CrypticSlayer
Summary: A simultaneously dark and comical tale in which a group of lifelong friends emerge from their vault for the first time as a result of invasion. Sometimes they curse a lot, and they all have good spirit, but the Wasteland doesn't take good personalities into account. This vivid saga skips no detail, including the pain of going an entire day in the Wasteland without a cup of coffee.
1. Chapter 1 - Thoughts of Freedom

**Chapter 1 – Thoughts of Freedom**

* * *

"Dude, come on. We have to get going."

I'm drifting. I am somewhere beyond the echoes and away from the darkness.

"Seriously man, we're dead if we don't get moving."

Light? Yes, light. Light that is more than real, reflecting only where it is natural and enveloping the entire body in warmth. A light that is not false and scattered, but rather true and singular. With this light, one easily finds himself basking in its glorious-

I feel a smack to my face, followed by Jon's voice, "Stop mumbling, you dumb shit. We're going to be late."

"Jesus, man," I rubbed my face and lifted my head from the soft, cold pillow, "Since when was it you smacking me around to get me out of bed?" I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and began pulling on my black work boots, "Just a year ago, I was practically dragging you by your feet to class every day."

Jon laughed, "And boy, have the tables turned! I just don't want to piss off Joseph again, he flipped his shit the last time you were late and he yelled at me for it. Apparently us being friends makes me responsible."

I slid my 10mm into its holster with one hand as I started my coffee maker with the other, "Yeah, well, Joe can suck a dick. I didn't want to be a guard in the first place, and he knows it. I swear he plays off of it, just to fuck with me."

"Well, definitely don't call him Joe. He thinks 'Joseph' sounds more sophisticated and authoritative." Jon threw up some air-quotes and rolled his eyes as he said that. He walked over to my fridge and opened it, "Care if I jack a Nuka-Cola?" He practically had the bottle opened already as I nodded. We all had our addictions. His was Nuka-Cola, mine was coffee. He chugged half of the bottle, and asked as he wiped a drop off of the corner of his mouth, "So, where is Lucy?"

"She worked a night shift, the clinic has her doing that a lot lately. She actually usually shows up here around the time you and I start rounds."

Jon smirked and said, "I guess that means you haven't been getting any lately?"

I smiled back and retaliated, "At least I get any at all!" Jon flipped me off with a smile, and we began walking out of the door.

"Don't forget your nametag, Joe will lecture you," Jon reminded me.

I grabbed my shiny little nametag off of my end table. It read 'Collin' in black, engraved letters. You know, in case the few hundred people in Vault 117 suddenly ceased to recognize me. "I thought he insisted on 'Joseph'?" I corrected Jon sarcastically.

We met with the other guards in the armory. After Joseph berated all of us for slacking on our duties or whatever, we received our assignments and dispersed. As intense as the guy seemed, he wasn't actually so bad. He knew Jon and I were good friends, and always seemed to place us on the exact same assignments nearly every day. This time around, we were placed on the sixth level in a resident hallway. The levels counted up from the bottom in our vault, so this meant we were actually closer to the surface. The thought of this somehow always made me feel less isolated. This didn't really make sense, given that our vault had ten levels. Nonetheless, it made me feel better.

As a guard, our jobs essentially consisted of walking up and down hallways pretending to be useful. We might break up a fight between a couple of pubescent boys here and there, or help a small child find her way back to her quarters because she had yet to learn the vault's hallways, but God forbid if we ever had to fire our guns. Not that I wished something bad would happen to anyone such that we needed to shoot, but it was just so god damn boring. Sure, we were the only ones in the vault who were allowed to practice in the firing range on the bottom floor, but you can only shoot up so many pieces of cardboard.

The worst part about me being chosen as a guard actually didn't have a whole lot to do with the G.O.A.T. exam. Our vault wasn't really too strict on forcing people into whatever job the exam suggested. They just needed more people as guards, essentially. In fact, as far as we knew, our Vault was the most lenient vault out there. We were well aware that Vault Tech had made the vaults to trap people in these crazy social experiments, but our Overseer disregarded these orders long before I was born and simply wanted our vault to function well and keep people safe. We even had access to information from the outside world, as well as from other vaults, while those other vaults were completely in the dark. Sometimes both literally and figuratively. However, one rule that stayed in place for our vault was the whole 'Nobody enters or leaves' business. There were a couple of escape attempts when I was younger, and one of them was even successful. In general, though, people were both happy in our vault and too scared to venture outward. What I would give, though…

"So, did I tell you about Jaclyn's latest intel from the surface?" Jon asked, bringing me out of my thoughts and back to the real world. If you could call it that.

"You did not, but save it for tonight. She can tell us about it while we're playing cards." Jaclyn was Jon's sister, who had coincidentally been dating my older brother, Aaron, for years. They met after Jon and I became friends in our youth. They were basically the perfect couple, with my brother being a computer geek and Jaclyn being an information nerd. My brother and I were very close, and I was very happy that he'd be playing cards with us tonight.

Jon replied, "Oh shit, I forgot that was tonight! That makes my day, I really need a break from walking the halls aimlessly." I smiled. We all loved 'card night', as we called it. It's basically a night where we all go to the lounges on the second level, drink alcohol, and play a trading card game based off of the Grognak comics. One of my favorite things about it is that Jaclyn gives us updates on the outside world. Her job is to research data, both preexisting and incoming, about the Capital Wasteland above us, alongside other locations on the surface. This information, of course, is mainly for the Vault's own research purposes, but Jaclyn shares it with us as a source of entertainment.

"Radroach, twelve o' clock," Jon muttered. He reached for his baton, but I put my arm out to stop him.

"Hold on, let me try something." The radroach was very far down the hallway, and I really wanted to practice my shot on a moving target.

"What if someone comes into the hallway?" Jon started.

I smirked, "Don't worry, I'll make sure it's clear." I looked at my Pip-Boy and pulled up the map. Only, my map was a bit modified from everyone else's. I selected all of the doors in our current hallway, and touched the 'LOCK' button that shouldn't be there. On my screen, all of the door icons switched from a green outline to red, indicating that they were locked. Simultaneously, I heard a little click sound travel down the hallway as each door locked remotely.

I looked at Jon, he glanced around, and then he looked at me and nodded.

I considered switching on V.A.T.S., but decided against it. I wanted this to be all me. I was aiming for the nasty little head with my 10mm pistol, looking down the sights. I took my shot, and just barely missed by a few inches.

"Collin, I think someone is coming towards the hallway door. You might wanna hurry before they wonder why it's locked." Jon sounded nervous.

I replied calmly, "Okay, just one second." I realigned my sights, exhaled slowly, and squeezed the trigger rather than pulling it. The radroach splattered messily across the metallic floor, and the loud pop of my gun echoed for a moment before resonating away into the iron walls. As soon as this was done, I ran towards the deceased radroach while unlocking all of the doors from my Pip-Boy. I heard the person on the other side of the hall door struggle with it for a brief moment before the wave of unlocking doors reached it. I pulled my baton out and rubbed it in some of the radroach's guts so that it appeared I had killed it with that instead of my gun.

Joseph was the person who came through the door, muttering "Damn doors, acting funny again." I straightened my back as he passed me. He gave me a side glance, and then continued past Jon. "Just seeing how you boys are doin'. Best that you clean up that radroach before people start walking through here and steppin' in it. And try not to make such a mess when you hit them, no need to explode them like that. A good, firm thump will do, no mess necessary. Almost looks like you shot the damn thing."

"Yes, sir," Jon and I said slightly out of sync, and Joseph disappeared eventually through the hall door on the other end.

Once we figured he could no longer hear even the faintest echo of our voices, we started laughing and Jon gave me the classic 'bro' handshake, patting my back as he said, "Dude, that was fucking awesome! Good shot man. How the hell did you lock the doors like that?"

"Oh, just a mod my brother and I came up with a while ago. We just got the code for it finished and debugged a month ago, he installed it on my Pip-Boy at our last card night." We used to have card night every week, but lately our little group only got together about once a month. That's pretty much the only time I ever saw my brother nowadays, and Var for that matter. Var was my other best friend; we had been friends since we started school. I was excited to see both him and Aaron tonight. Ironic how our world of metal rooms and hallways was so relatively small, and yet we could go so long without seeing certain people. Perhaps Vault 117 was one of the bigger vaults with its 10 levels, and it also expanded to great lengths on each floor, but it was still strange to not even so much as run into my own brother or best friend in such a long time.

"You and Aaron still do that stuff? I figured you guys don't see each other enough to make your little 'mods' anymore." Jon looked at his Pip-Boy, as if wishing his were upgraded, too.

"We still coordinate when we can. I pretty much just code during the little free time I do have, and he works on the interface stuff all the time. I just wish we didn't have to do it under the radar, they still don't want us modifying our Pip-Boy's. Which is bullshit."

"Who is this 'they' that you speak of?" Jon asked.

"Eh, just the tech guys. They're afraid we'll break them, and there 'aren't enough Pip-Boy's to go around', or something stupid like that." This topic always got me going. Especially because having a tech job is what I would have chosen if they didn't force me to join the guard.

"You guys should just upgrade mine anyways, I won't let anyone see. It's worth the risk."

I responded, "Worth the risk for you, maybe. They'd just make you restore your Pip-Boy to default settings and basically say 'Don't do it again.' I, on the other hand, would probably have to give mine up, and my brother would be suspended from the tech department for God knows how long."

"Yeah, good point. But still, you and Aaron have such badass Pip-Boys. If they ever approve mods, just let me in on it." Jon always tried to convince me, and I always had to remind him of my caution.

"Will do, man." I knew they'd never approve it, though. The few strict rules our vault did have weren't going anywhere.

A good eight hours later, it was seven o' clock and time to finish up rounds. After debrief in the armory, and a long, repetitive lecture by none other than our good Captain Joseph, we guards were free to go for the weekend. Well, those of us who didn't have duty this weekend. Jon pulled his helmet off of his semi-long, curly blonde hair and removed his body armor from his bony torso. It always never seemed to quite fit him; he was skinny as a pole and yet he was a guard. But, Jon was a good guard no less. By no means was I myself a big meathead like many of the other guardsman, but I did at least have some meat on my bones. I was more average-heighted and compact. The frequent training helped tone my muscles a bit more over the past year, but poor Jon was just now starting to fill out to a size that might be considered moderately less bone-thin. I guess progress is progress.

Jon shoved the last of his gear into his locker and said, "Hey, I'll catch you in an hour at card night."

"Yeah man, I'll see you there," I called after him as he went off, probably to go sit in his own quarters and drink excessive amounts of Nuka-Cola. This reminded me that I could really go for a cup of coffee.

"Hey uh, you guys doin' one of your game night things?" asked Mike from one locker over, one of the many meatheads I mentioned earlier. He was probably twice my size, and half as intelligent if I had to be honest. A nice guy, though.

I replied, "Oh, yeah, just the usual you know?"

Mike smiled, "I thought I heard ya say that to the scrawny one. I was just kinda hopin' maybe his sista would be in the lounge tellin' her stories or whateva. You know, of the outside and stuff. Me and some of the guys love listenin' to it. And a lot of otha' people, not just us. It's fascinatin', ya know?"

Without really trying, Jaclyn was actually quite popular for her knowledge and stories she obtained of the wasteland above us. People always listen in to her at the lounges. "Yeah, she will be there. I think she's got some new stuff for us, second floor at eight o' clock as always."

I received a playful punch on the right arm as Mike said, smiling, "Sweet dude! I guess I'll see ya there. Thanks!"

I couldn't help but bear a genuine smile at his enthusiasm, "Sure thing, Mike."

I trotted up the stairs to the third level, each step making the unforgettable sound of boots on metal, still bearing my smile. Maybe it's weird, but I just really loved it when we all got back to together on these nights. My brother and I could talk about more Pip-Boy modifications we had in mind, Var and I could gang up on Jon and pick on him as per usual; just the whole vibe of being in the presence of all of your friends for the first time in a while always gave me this sort of good, nostalgic feeling. There was also the alcohol, too.

I was also very happy walking into my quarters and finding Lucy at the desk, probably working on some sort of medical research. She heard me walk in, instantly standing and turning to me with a bright smile. I couldn't help but take her in as I always do. She had dark, brown eyes and hair dyed dark red that ran past her shoulders. She was not like most of the other girls in the vault; many of them tended to be stick thin, but Lucy was that perfect balance between being small and curvy. She was also just a little bit short, so that she came right up to the bottom of my nose when she stood right in front of me. I thought these things made her the most beautiful girl in the world, let alone in Vault 117.

"Hey there," she said in an almost smoky voice, wrapping her arms around my neck and kissing me on the lips.

"Hey there, beautiful," I responded, giving her a kiss back, "I like the glasses, they look really good on you." She was wearing a pair of black, thick-framed glasses for the first time, and she really did look good with them. She was also still wearing her lab coat from the clinic, so she had this sort of whole look going on that was very attractive to me for some reason.

She simply smiled and asked, "Are you ready for card night?"

"Of course! We still have an hour to kill, though." Thought I'd slip that in there, just to see.

Lucy maintained her smile, still holding her arms around me, and responded, "Hmm, I think we can kill an hour pretty easily."

One easily killed hour later, Lucy and I were heading very quickly to everyone's favorite lounge. We had lost track of time and were a little bit late. A lot of people passed us in the hallway, for this was a very popular floor on Friday nights. It was only a little past eight, and there was already a young, drunk maintenance worker stumbling about. The alleged 'drinking age' in our vault was eighteen, and this guy was probably just that and making the most of it. Other cliques of people stood together in the halls and inside of various diners, lounges and the bar. This was definitely the loudest place in the vault right now, but luckily our group of friends had a choice lounge further down the hall that was dim, relatively quiet, and not usually packed full of other young adult dwellers like us.

Lucy and I finally reached it and walked in together. We immediately saw Jon, Aaron, Jaclyn, Var, and Var's robot assistant Thomas that I will explain later. Lucy went to save her and I a seat at the round table they were sitting at, and I went to grab us some drinks. A Mr. Handy worked behind the counter, and this one in particular had been named Hans.

"Hey Hans," I addressed him, "could I get two Nukes, one for me and one for the lady?" We had a drink where you mix a couple of shots of whiskey with Nuka-Cola, and all of us called this beverage a Nuke.

"Sure thing, Mr. Collin. Glad to see you are doing well!" Hans hovered over to the glasses, grabbed two at once, and made the drinks.

He slid them over to me with his robotic arms, and I said, "Thanks Hans, you're the best."

"Anytime, my good sir. Please do visit more often, I do quite enjoy your company!" Hans replied in his posh British accent. I always loved the Mr. Handy robots, they had such character.

I carried the drinks to our table, setting one in front of Lucy and one in front of my empty seat. As I was sitting down, I gave Var a one armed hugged and said, "Hey man, how've you been?"

"Well, I was great for this entire month until I saw Jon's face when I got in here," replied Var with a smirk and a glance over to Jon, who was giving his signature smile-and-middle-finger gesture in Var's direction.

"Try seeing him every single day at work, and in an oversized guard's uniform no less," I said, taking a sip from my Nuke.

Jon paused in the middle of playing a Grognak card in a match he was having with my brother, "Hey, fuck you guys! I'm starting to get big from training, and I'll kick both of your asses when the time comes!"

Var retaliated, "But, Jon, you can't kick my ass. I'm crippled!"

"Hardly," Jon responded, "You have your fucking robot there that you'd probably use to fight me!"

Var simply nodded at this and said, "Damn straight." A little side note: Var actually was crippled, or 'physically disabled' if you want to be politically correct. It had to do with his joints; he couldn't bend his elbows or knees too well, and his hands didn't quite work the way they were supposed to. He was born this way, and it had given him some challenges as he grew up in the vault. However, he was a smart guy and always worked and studied with robots, so he ended up in the Robotics Department for his job and custom built his very own robot to help him out with things he couldn't do. Var could walk around quite well, but a lot of hands-on stuff required assistance. Nonetheless, our group of friends had known him for a very long time, and Var had no problem making fun of himself.

Var's robot, Thomas, said alongside Var, "Damn straight, Jon sir." He had the same accent that all other Mr. Handy robots had, but Thomas was much more enabled, you could say.

We all laughed, and everyone went back to their conversations and card games. I said to Aaron across the table, "Long time, no see!"

My brother was sharing a Nuka-Cola with Jaclyn; they weren't much for drinking alcohol, and I always respected that. "Yeah, I know. We need to have these card nights more often like we used to. I was gonna ask, did you finish the code for the… thing?"

I leaned in, "Almost. I'm having a little trouble with a minor glitch. Well, I say minor because it sort of works, but not quite the way we wanted it too…"

Aaron replied, "That's ok. Maybe we can talk about that later. For now, I do have a nice little update for your Pip-Boy." I knew what this update was.

Jon jumped in, "Think maybe I could upgrade mine, Aaron?"

He and I both said, "No, Jon" at the same time. Jon hit his fist on the table and uttered some inaudible curse word.

My brother slid a holotape across the table. I swiped it up, glanced around the diner, and popped it into the holotape slot on my Pip-Boy. The word 'Downloading' appeared on the screen, and I rested my arm under the table to keep it out of sight. Nobody in the diner was really paying attention to us right now. Mike and his guard buddies were drinking at a table nearby, and Mike did glance over once in a while, likely to see if Jaclyn was telling us news of the wasteland yet.

I noticed Jon eyeing a girl that he always looked at, a taller girl named Nora. Var must have noticed as well, because he leaned to Jon and said, "Why don't you just go talk to her?"

"I fucking try all the time, but I never get anywhere. Plus, that asshole Derek is talking to her right now." Jon took a very large drink from his glass and glared over at the bar.

I looked over, and sure enough saw Derek saying something to Nora. Whatever he had said made Nora laugh. Jon looked quite pissed. I checked my Pip-Boy, and saw that the download had finished up. I said, "Hold on, Jon. I got this." I popped the holotape back out, slid it back to my brother, and went to the new 'Automatons' tab on my screen.

"What the hell is that menu?" Jon asked curiously.

Instead of saying anything, I pointed at Hans at the bar as I clicked on a button on my screen. A second later, the signal transmitted and Hans suddenly flung a glass of Nuka-Cola onto Derek.

Derek was instantly pissed, and Nora had stepped back and was holding back a laugh, "What the hell? Fucking robot, what is wrong with you?"

Hans responded with artificial nervousness, "I-I'm so sorry, Derek sir! I don't know what compelled me to-" Derek stormed off and Hans said, "Oh, um. Well, that was quite strange. Are you alright Ms. Nora?"

She nodded in return, looking a little taken aback at Derek's rage. Jon fist bumped me, put his drink down, stood up and said to our table, "Fuck it. What have I got to lose?" He proceeded to walk over to the bar and talk to Nora. I overheard them talking about how much of a dick Derek was, and she actually seemed to be enjoying the conversation.

I smiled to myself and toyed with the new menu items on my Pip-Boy a little bit longer. Var and Aaron had started up a new game of Grognak cards, Thomas drawing a new card for Var each time he needed it. While they were playing, I asked Var how he was able to keep Thomas running for so long, and he told me something about daisy-chaining fission batteries that I didn't quite understand. I looked around and just took in my surroundings. Sipping my drink, I simply appreciated the moment. Jon was still hitting it off with Nora, Jaclyn was telling Lucy some interesting history she learned about old-world medicine, and the other people in the diner all looked like they were having a good time. This was why I always loved card night, everyone just seemed so happy.

I came out of my drifting thought stream as Jon sat back at the table and said, "I got a fucking date." He was lit up with joy. I patted him on the back and we all talked about it for a few minutes, asking him how it went and what they talked about.

After some time had passed, we all knew it was time for Jaclyn to tell us the news. I said, "Alright, Jaclyn. Go ahead."


	2. Chapter 2 - Freedom Granted

**Chapter 2 – Freedom Granted**

* * *

It was almost unsettling how much quieter the diner got. There were definitely a few tables around us that were waiting for Jaclyn to speak. I thought about how strange it was that Jaclyn's tales of the surface had become such a well-known source of entertainment and information. I was sure that some of the people were actually in the diner for the sole purpose of hearing what new things Jaclyn had discovered about the unseen world above us. There was certainly meathead Mike, of course, who had made it blatantly known when he asked me about it earlier.

"Tell us what's been going on!" called somebody from a distant table.

"Has that Three-Dog guy said anything new?" asked another.

Several people around the room began spouting questions and speculation, and the noise level rose to the highest point it had been the entire night so far.

Jaclyn cleared her throat loudly, and the silence that followed was instantaneous. I heard faintly the metallic echoes of voices and glasses clinking from the other diners throughout the hall, and the steady flame of Hans and Thomas' jets burning away as oxygen ignited to keep their metal frames afloat.

Jaclyn was normally shy, but she had gained some public speaking experience from all the times she did this before. She stood up and spoke, "I suppose I'll start away from home." She cleared her throat again, "We got some information from a vault pretty far away from here. As I've told you guys before, our vault – Vault 117 – was wired to a lot of the other vaults out there when Vault Tech built them before the war. While most of them don't receive information from us, we receive information from all of them. Well, at least, we have the ability to. And only the vaults on our side of the country. Anyways, there are a lot of vaults we've never received any signals, data, or signatures from. A few days ago, there was one that we got a reading from for the first time in our vault's history." A quiet murmur of chatter spread across the room for a moment, and then died off as Jaclyn continued, "This reading we got shows two things: The chamber that a vault dweller was preserved in through cryogenic freezing opened up for the first time, and not too long after, the vault's main door opened up for the first time."

I asked, "Where was this?"

"It was in a place called the Commonwealth, or originally Boston back in the day. The vault number was 111." Many people in the room rattled on about this for a moment. We had learned about the Commonwealth in school, and about the vault that had attempted cryogenic freezing. I think the idea was that the vault dwellers there would be frozen and then wake up when the wasteland was safe hundreds of years later, still in the exact physical state they were in upon entering the freezing chambers. Our vault's personally written history books always spoke of Vault 111's attempts at doing this as a failed experiment. Apparently, this might not be the case.

Mike jumped in, "That's real interesting and all, but what about the stuff goin' on right above our heads? How's about that Lone Wanderer guy?"

Jon turned to him and said quickly, "I'm sure she was getting to it, calm your tits and just listen." He was always very protective over his older sister, so his fuse was a bit short when anyone got even remotely impatient with her. His fuse was short in general, really.

A few people chuckled at Jon's reaction, and then Jaclyn carried on, "Well, I do have some Capital Wasteland news as well." She bore a slight smirk while saying, "Our good friend Three-Dog has been airing some new stuff." Everyone got excited at this, for we all loved Three-Dog. With mention of his name always came the most interesting news, and Jaclyn had even once played some recordings of his voice for us to hear since none of us had access to radios like she did at her research job. The way he spoke was both humorous and strangely inspiring. Up on the surface, Three-Dog was some sort of wasteland news bringer and was allegedly on the good side of things. Fighting 'the good fight' was his thing, I believe.

"The good news is," Jaclyn continued, "the Lone Wanderer has taken out that Raven Rock place with all those Enclave people." All we really knew about the Enclave from our closed little world in the vault is that they were bad people who liked using high-tech weaponry. A few people in the diner cheered at this. "And, he's found his missing father." Nearly everyone cheered when she said this, for we had been hearing about the Wanderer's search for his father for quite some time now.

I couldn't help but ask, "If that's the good news, is there any bad news?"

Jaclyn seemed a little uncomfortable at first, and I felt bad for putting her on the spot. She took a moment, glancing at my brother and then at the table. Nonetheless, she responded somewhat nervously, "Well, I don't really want to get people worked up or anything. It's not really a big deal, but–"

"What's not a big deal?" Mike asked.

Jaclyn hesitated, "I probably shouldn't risk worrying anybody…"

"Just tell us already!" Mike demanded, alongside others in the room.

Jon looked at Mike and said, "Dude, just shut the fuck up and give her a second. If she can't tell us, then she can't tell us."

"No, it's alright Jon," Jaclyn jumped back in, "I'll tell you guys, but please do not make a fuss about it." Mike appeared a little frustrated with Jon's comment, but he looked on just as curiously as everyone else in the diner. "It's not really news, but just a small concern. With all the things going on with the Lone Wanderer, his actions have stirred things up in the wasteland quite a bit. He's done some good things, according to Three-Dog, but he has also thrown everything out of balance."

This time Var asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well," Jaclyn paused for moment to think, and continued, "it's just that Three-Dog has been talking about a lot of movement going on in the wastes. Like, raiders are starting to migrate around from their normal hiding places, the Enclave is all scattered now because of Raven Rock, and mutants are straying further out than normal from downtown D.C."

"What does that have to do with us?" Mike asked.

Jaclyn's eyes looked from place to place again before eying the entire diner slowly, "All I'm saying is that the wasteland is apparently a lot more active than usual, and that just has us a little concerned about someone stumbling upon our vault. But it's just a small concern. Not even that, really, just something we're trying to be aware of in case–"

"Do you really think someone would break into our vault?" someone asked.

"What if mutants come after us?" worried someone else. Wild theories formulated all around the room.

"Listen," Jaclyn made a gesture with her hands for everyone to quiet down, "there are no mutants coming after anybody. We don't even know if anyone will ever find our vault. We just don't want all the new disturbances up above to lead any stray people to our front door. And even if that did happen, those people would likely never manage to get in. Everyone here is safe."

Mike interjected once again, "Nobody would 'likely' get in, but you ain't sayin' it _can't_ happen. What if it does?"

Jon answered him, "Then guards like me, Collin, and your dumb ass would probably have to take care of it, and we would be fine. Now how about you stop egging things on?"

"Do ya really think we can handle whateva's out there, scrawny? We probably ain't as tough as we think! Especially you. And don't be telling me what to do." Mike was getting worked up. Jon had that effect on people.

Jon said loudly, "Hey, how about you fuck off, Mike?"

Mike stood up quickly, clenching his fists, but Jaclyn yelled, "Stop! You two need to quit yelling at each other and just listen to me! This is exactly why I didn't want to say anything in the first place. The research team and I were basically just talking about potential scenarios, and note that I said _potential_ , not _likely_. We were just throwing things out there, and it was never something to worry about in the first place." Jon looked like he was about to say something, probably along the lines of saying that he was only trying to defend Jaclyn, but she cut him off before any words came out of his mouth, "Forget that I ever said anything about it. We're safe here, nobody is opening the vault, and that's the end of it."

Jaclyn walked out of the diner, prompting my brother to get up from his seat and follow her out. On his way, he leaned to me and said, "Sorry about that, she hates being put on the spot. Maybe we'll talk about our new Pip-Boy project later." I nodded and told him that was fine, and he walked out. There went the rest of card night, I suppose.

A brief silence followed afterwards. After a good minute, the diner resumed normal noise levels as people turned back to each other, discussing the newly given news. Lucy, holding my hand, leaned towards me and said quietly, "Hey, do you want to get out of here soon?"

"Sure, give me just a couple of minutes. I can meet you up in the room if you want." Lucy agreed to this, kissing me and heading out of the diner.

"So," Var started, "what do you think of all that?"

I glanced at Jon, who still looked a little pissed from his exchange with Mike, and then I said, "I'm not completely sure what to make of it. That was the least detailed set of news we've gotten in a while from her."

Var responded, "What do you think about the whole wasteland disturbance thing, though?"

I thought for moment, and said with a sigh, "I really don't know. I mean, if Jaclyn says it's not a big deal, then I'm sure it isn't. But I can't help but wonder why she mentioned it at all."

Jon chimed in, "It's because that dickhead Mike made her say it."

Var said to him, "He didn't really pressure her that much, though. I mean, she gave in pretty easily."

I said in agreement, "Yeah, I'm not trying to be a dick, but I don't think Mike really had that much to do with her saying it. I feel like Jaclyn would be pretty good at keeping something to herself if she really wanted to."

"Yeah, I guess so," Jon agreed.

I continued, "I just wonder if there's maybe more to it. Like, maybe Jaclyn and the research people know that there've been outsiders near the general vicinity of our vault or something."

"How could they know that, though?" Jon questioned.

"Well, perhaps they heard Three-Dog mention our area on his broadcast," I suggested.

Var had a doubtful expression, "But why wouldn't Jaclyn just say that?"

"It's just a thought," I responded with a yawn, "She definitely wouldn't want to cause panic. Or, assuming there was panic, she wouldn't want to be in trouble for spreading news around that isn't really meant for everyone to hear. Either way, she wanted to let us know that some unrest is going on, and she did." Jon, Var and I conversed a little bit longer before saying goodnight and parting ways to our respective quarters.

I walked up the stairway slowly, yawning some more and thinking about the night's events. What would happen if our vault was invaded? Would we stand a chance? Would anyone be hurt? And once the vault door was open, would it ever shut again? What scared me was, if it ever were opened, I wasn't so sure I would want it to close back up. This way, I could finally see what was beyond these dark, echoing halls and stairwells. I could finally see the sky and the sun, a giant light that keeps the whole world lit up on its own. One singular light source that could do what Vault 117 must do with hundreds and hundreds of smaller, scattered lights. However, I also knew that the vault opening up would mean that we were in danger. I would not want anything to happen to anyone that I knew, and especially to my friends. If anything were to happen to Lucy, I don't think I could handle it.

Yet, I also knew that I was never going to see the outside of this hollowed-out, underground hunk of metal unless some unpredictable event forced us to leave. My friends and I would probably never live to see the day that the Overseer and his council deemed the wasteland safe, therefore permitting us to leave the vault for the first time. The fact that it's still referred to as the 'wasteland' at all is quite an indicator that it's nowhere near the time that we would be allowed to leave. I had always daydreamed about the Overseer announcing that the doors would be opened, and some people have even actually tried to convince him in the past. Nonetheless, I think the Overseer would settle for staying in the vault forever if he could.

The halls always had an eerie feel to them during the nighttime. In order to simulate real night, whatever that may be like, our vault shut off many of the hallway lights throughout the entire vault. There was only one light left on for about every ten or fifteen feet, giving the hall a sort of pattern of dark to light, and then to dark again, and so on. Since the dark patches were much bigger, they always seemed to be winning some sort of war between the shadows and the light, the dark seeming to overcome the artificial rays of sunshine.

Right as I was unlocking the door to my room, the Overseer's voice sounded from the vault's intercom, "Attention: I need a few guardsman report to the second level." I paused with my hand on my door, listening and waiting for more. I had just come from the second level, the floor where we all had card night. Why did guards need to be sent there? The Overseer continued in an exasperated tone, almost as if to answer my thoughts, "There are a few intoxicated young men that are harassing a poor bartender. She reported that they have been causing trouble all night. They're in diner A6, in the west wing. Thank you." With the click of the intercom hanging up, I almost laughed at myself for getting worried at all. Of course it was just some drunk boys, that's what it always was. Now I just felt lucky that I wasn't on duty tonight to deal with them.

I opened the metal door slowly, figuring Lucy might be asleep. Sure enough, I could see from the small amount of light entering through the door that she was lying down in the bedroom. I quietly shut the door behind me, and with that the room was suddenly almost pitch black. The only things still making light were the digital alarm clock and the glow of my terminal in the corner. There was a single, useless window in my room that merely looked out to the hallway, but I always kept the blinds shut and curtains drawn. Our living quarters in the vault were rather compact, with just a small living room and bedroom. The living room had a little area that was meant to be a kitchen, with a little stovetop, sink, a few cabinets, and a coffeemaker. Bathrooms were large amenities down the hall that everyone in our hallway shared. There was one for men and one for women in every resident hallway, complete with stalls that hid toilets and lines of individual showers that were also separated by stalls.

After kicking off my boots and throwing off my shirt, I peeled back the covers on my side of the bed and slipped in right next to Lucy. She stirred a little, turning over and laying her head on my chest. I smiled and kissed her forehead, running my hand through her hair for some time, and began drifting off to sleep. I gave in to it, and I was out in just minutes.

It seemed like no time passed at all when my eyes shot open and I bolted upwards. I wasn't sure what woke me. A bad dream, perhaps? I glanced at the alarm clock, and it read 5:17 a.m. It had been a few hours. My movement had woken Lucy up slightly, and she asked sleepily, "Are you ok?"

I responded, "Yeah, I'm fine babe. Just a bad dream, I think." She was likely already asleep again before I finished speaking.

I got out of the bed and felt around for the refrigerator in the living room. Locating the handle, I swung the door open and the light from inside nearly lit up the whole room. Since my eyes were adjusted to the dark, it seemed almost unbearably bright. I grabbed a water bottle out, shut the fridge, and plopped down on the couch. Opening the bottle, I let the cool liquid run through my mouth and down my throat. I had a little bit of dry mouth from sleeping, so this was very satisfying. There was still a green spot in my vision from the light inside of the fridge. I vainly attempted to remember the dream that had woke me up, but nothing came to me.

A strange, indistinguishable noise came from the hallway outside. Whatever it was had definitely come from further away. The sound made me feel the need to sit up straight and listen harder. Was it just someone walking in the hall? No, it didn't sound anything like that. I heard it again, followed by a very faint yell. What was going on?

I carefully peeked behind the curtain and through the blinds, out into the dim hallway. I saw me and Lucy's older neighbor that lived right across from us, Charles, step out into the hallway in his undergarments. He was only standing halfway out of his door at first, looking down towards the right side of the hall. As if he saw something, he suddenly stepped out all the way with a confused expression. He was peering harder down the hallway. I heard his voice, muffled through the wall, saying, "What the hell?" Right as he did so, a blinding green light lit up the hallway, growing brighter and brighter every fraction of a second, until it met with Charles' torso. When it hit him, he fell a few feet backwards and began screaming immediately. The glowing, green substance stuck to him and was melting with his flesh. He screamed louder and louder until he seemed to choke on his own internal fluids, ceasing to breath. He lay limp in a large pool of plasma that had blended with liquefied human flesh.

I fell backwards from the window, landing on my bottom as the curtain fell shut. Quickly standing back up, I went over to the bed and shook Lucy, "You need to get up, right now!"

She rose up somewhat slowly, asking, "What's wrong?" Several more shots of whatever was shooting the plasma fired down the hallway, and this really woke Lucy up.

"I'm not sure, but I think I just saw Charles die," I was speaking quietly but quickly, and with a great deal of fear, "That sound you just heard is what killed him."

Lucy sounded incredulous, "What? You mean he was murdered? How?"

"Some sort of plasma flew into him, I don't know how though."

"You mean, like a plasma gun?" Lucy sounded both scared and confused.

I responded, "Yeah, but I don't know how. We don't have anything like that in the vault!" I was trying to think of ways to explain this, but thought of nothing. Then I said, "I didn't actually see who shot the plasma, I don't even know where it came from." More shots fired outside.

"Well, go look again!" Lucy urged.

I nodded, stumbling my way back across the dark room. This time, I was extremely careful to be discreet when I pushed down one of the blinds behind the curtainto look outside. Whoever was out there, I did not want them to do the same thing to me as they did to Charles. His body was still lying there, halfway disintegrated by the plasma-like substance. I didn't want to look at it any longer, and tried to see further down the hallway. I heard more distant shots, some of them sounding like the 10mm pistols that we had in the vault.

Just under one of the lights were the two most frightening looking men I had ever seen in my entire life. They both wore an armor that was as metallic as the walls of the vault, though much more worn down. It was a full body armor, with bulky sections covering various sections of the two men's bodies. The helmets covered their entire heads, with orange-tinted glass where the eyes would be, and two black tubes running from the mouth area down into the rest of the suit. I guessed that those were for oxygen. On the left breast plate was a symbol I had never seen before. It was a letter 'E' surrounded by five-pointed stars. My eyes grew wide and my heart stopped for a moment.

"The Enclave," I muttered.

"What? How is that possible?" Lucy demanded.

I swallowed, "It's just a guess, but there's a big 'E' on their suits." I now acknowledged their high-tech weapons that they carried, and said, "And they are wearing some very fancy looking armor, and they definitely have some kind of plasma guns in their hands." I didn't want to say it to Lucy, but I could also see a few more bodies of residents laying on the ground.

Lucy's voice was shaking, "What do we do?"

I stopped looking through the blinds and flipped on my Pip-Boy's flashlight. The light that it filled the room with was green, and I could now see Lucy's face. She looked more scared than I had ever seen her, and I was sure I looked the same. I tried to maintain a sense of calm collectiveness, as false as it might have been, "Get some clothes on and grab some extras. Put them in your bag." My thoughts were racing. I handed Lucy her backpack that she would normally carry things for work in.

"Why do I need extra clothes?" she asked me.

I looked at her, locked eyes, and said as clearly and calmly as I could muster, "We might have to get out of here." I don't know why I was drawing that conclusion so soon, but I had a feeling. Rather than saying anything else, Lucy just nodded with her eyes wide and began packing her things. She knew exactly what I meant.

I threw on a shirt and put my body armor over it. I had a second vest, so I slipped it onto Lucy's torso while she was grabbing water bottles from the fridge and shoving them into her backpack. I clipped my belt around my waist and grabbed my 10mm from the drawer that I always kept it in. It had a clip in it with twelve bullets, and I grabbed my other three clips from the drawer. I also had a black baton, so I slid that into its proper place on my belt as well. Lastly, I grabbed my helmet and gave it to Lucy. She tried to refuse, but I insisted and she reluctantly slid it on.

The plastic face-shield muffled her voice slightly as she asked, "Do we need anything else?"

"Did you grab the med kit?" I asked. Screams traveled throughout the hallway outside as more residents were surely becoming one with the hot, liquid plasma that the Enclave men were cruelly discharging upon them.

"Of course I did," Lucy said with a look that implied I should know better.

"Alright, let's do this. I'll go first. Our goal is just to make it to the stairway. You follow right behind me, okay?"

"And then what? What about Aaron? And Jaclyn, Var, and Jon?" Lucy asked.

"I… I don't know. I'm hoping my brother and the rest of them are already making their way out. They're all smart, and I don't think we'll be able to go find all of them ourselves. Their resident halls are scattered all throughout the vault." I really did hope all of them woke up and had time to react like we did.

Before we opened the door, Lucy and I embraced and said that we loved each other. We didn't know what was going to happen, or if we'd even make it five feet from the front door. She and I had a very long kiss, and then we readied ourselves. I prepared my pistol in my right hand, and opened the door as slowly as I could with my left. Lucy stood right behind me. The two men that I saw before were facing away, apparently guarding the hall. One of them turned his head, and abruptly started to raise his plasma rifle. Before he could complete this movement, I flipped a switch on my Pip-Boy and thought myself into V.A.T.S. mode. I felt the cold, calculating system creep into my brain as everything in my vision appeared to be ninety frames per second. I felt that I knew exactly where the Enclave soldier was going to move at any given moment, and green, digital percentages suddenly floated over both his and the other soldiers' heads. Pistol already raised, I lined up two headshots in what felt like slow-motion. The percentages both read '62%,' and I took my chances.

The moment my brain let go of V.A.T.S., the world seemed to go back to normal speed as both men dropped to the ground. One lay limp entirely, while the other thrashed around wildly and holding the side of his helmet. The bullet had grazed the side of it, but this was still enough force to do some internal damage. He probably ruptured an eardrum in the process. I ran up to him, and he started to reach for his plasma gun. I placed my foot on it before he could reach it, promptly sending a bullet through the orange-tinted glass on the helmet that covered his eyes. Blood sprayed upward through the newly made hole.

I turned to the side, leaned forward and vomited just a moment later. I placed my hand on my knee to brace myself, and Lucy was soon next to me with her hand on my back. She spoke gently, "Hey, it's okay. You had to do it, or we wouldn't have any chance of getting out of here." I nodded, but I just needed a minute. I did just take away human lives for my first time, after all. The sound of more Enclave weapons echoed from some distant hallway, and Lucy pressed me, "We really have to go, Collin."

I spit a few times in attempt to clear some of the bitter vomit from my mouth, and then stood up straight once more. I was shaking. I instructed Lucy to stay very close, and we darted towards the stairwell. More bodies littered the hallway than I had originally realized. I peered down another hallway as we ran, and caught sight of a group of four more Enclave soldiers. I still had nine more shots in my 10mm before I needed to reload, but I knew that didn't matter. The V.A.T.S. system took some time before it could work again, and there was no way I could take on four of them anyways. On top of that, my shots back there were lucky, likely from the adrenaline or something. I wasn't about to bank on being that lucky every single time.

Lucy and I finally reached the stairwell, cautiously heading up. It wrapped around over and over, and we had only just reached the fifth floor when an Enclave soldier was suddenly right in front of me. I tried to hit him with the butt of my gun, but he grabbed my wrist and shoved me against the wall with the enormous weight of his armor. I heard Lucy scream. I struggled with the man, but to no avail. He now had me by the throat and was pressing harder. He spoke in a cynical tone, "This little rabbit hole of a vault will make a nice new home for us." I imagined he was smiling under that frightening helmet, and he even let out a chuckle. I gripped the man's forearms in a hopeless attempt to ease his force upon my breathing passages, but I was slowly starting to fade away.

A green flash lit up the dark stairwell, and the Enclave soldier suddenly fell with a cry that was just as traumatizing as the one Charles had let out. I stumbled out of the way quickly, choking for air. Once I felt my life force start to return, I looked up from my profuse coughing and saw Lucy standing with a pistol-sized plasma gun. I realized she had shot the man who was choking me.

Lucy grew frantic, "I'm so sorry, I could have hit you! I didn't know what else to do, and his gun was just lying on the floor! I –"

I interrupted, saying between coughs, "It's-it's alright, babe. You s-saved my life." Once I had my bearings back and stopped coughing, I said, "Let's just keep moving. Keep that gun." I looked down at the now silent and deceased Enclave soldier. I was more than glad this one was dead, for he had put his hands on me, and very nearly killed me.

I knew this wasn't the only stairwell leading up in the vault, but it still worried me that we weren't seeing any of our own people. Was anyone else still alive? Were Lucy and I the only ones trying to escape? Reaching the tenth floor finally, we caught our breath from climbing the stairs. I looked down the main hallway, unused to being on this floor. Guards would normally have been on the stairs one floor down to keep anyone from going up here. And not guards like Jon and I, but the Top Guards. We called them this both because their jobs were technically of a higher importance than ours, and because they guarded the top floor.

Lucy and I began trotting down this hallway. It was much bigger than the ones we were used to. It was three times as wide, and didn't have nearly as many doors along the sides. Someone stepped out, and I nearly fired my gun out of fear before realizing that it was a vault dweller.

"Collin, Lucy, you guys made it up here?" the dweller asked down the hallway.

I looked closer, and realized that it was Jon. A wave of relief came over me. I called to him, "Holy shit. It's so good to see that you're okay!" We walked towards each other, "Have you seen any of the others?"

Jon bore a worried expression as he replied, "No, I haven't seen Aaron or Jaclyn since they left card night last night. Or, this morning I guess I should say. Whatever, you know what I mean! I saw Var being carried by Thomas a little while ago down on the fourth floor, but I couldn't catch up to him." Jon hugged Lucy and I and said, "I am fucking glad that you two are okay, at least. I just hope my sister's alright. She and Aaron don't have weapons laying around their quarters like us." It never occurred to me for some reason that I only had a gun because I was a guard. I had a sinking feeling that there was no way they could have made it without anything to protect themselves with.

I noticed that Jon had a backpack on his back like Lucy and I, so I said, "Should we try to get out of here while we still can?" They both agreed, and we headed towards the room that had been forbidden to us our entire lives.

As we got closer, more and more bodies appeared on the floor. Most of them were Top Guards, but there were a few Enclave men scattered about as well. There was a big door that had already been opened at the end of the hall, and it led into another room. The sign over the door read "VAULT ENTRANCE." Lucy, Jon and I looked at each other, then walked in. The room actually wasn't very big, but there were arrays of buttons and switches in a small side room, as well as wires running everywhere. In the center of the far wall in the room was a large, metal door that was shaped like a cog.

We had never seen the vault door before, so the three of us just stared for a moment. This is what kept us below the ground for our entire lives. Not just us, but all of the people that we ever knew. All of our ancestors for the last two-hundred years had never gone beyond that door. It was the very door that trapped in all of the echoing halls and metal structures that we were imprisoned by every single moment of our lives.

Lucy spoke suddenly, "I… I think that's the Overseer's body over there." She pointed in a corner of the room, and sure enough, the Overseer lay there completely lifeless. He was very apparently shot with a plasma weapon. This was the first time I had actually seen him in person for about four months.

With the sight of his body, we knew that what we were about to do was necessary. We weren't sure why the Enclave had shut the door behind them, but we were about to reopen it. I walked over to a little switchboard right in front of the vault door, and pulled down a large, red lever that was very apparently the opening switch. A moment after, a pulsing alarm sounded as a red light began to flash. A mechanical arm swung out from the side and embedded itself into the center of the vault door. It pulled backwards, and with it came the exceptionally thick vault door. Pressure rushed out of the room, the wind hitting the three of us. The arm rolled the door out of the way slowly, and I saw for my first time the manmade cave system that would lead me to the surface. Jon, Lucy and I were the first dwellers in Vault 117's history to see beyond our metal casing that we had always known as home.


	3. Chapter 3 - Beautiful Destruction

**Chapter 3 – Beautiful Destruction**

* * *

It was strange to see so much rock. This wasn't my first time seeing rock, for we did have samples in our vault that people could look at. However, it was definitely the most I'd ever seen at once, considering this was an entire cave that completely surrounded us with the hard, rough material. The sensation of walking on it was very odd, too. In the vault, every step carried with it a noticeable vibration and a metallic click that had simply been all I ever knew. In this cave, each step was instead a firm, solid step that was absorbed instantly by the stone. The sound was more of a scraping noise, and very often was accompanied with a crunch from smaller rocks. Pebbles, I believe they were called.

Lucy walked on my right, and Jon walked on my left. They both appeared to be dwelling on the new surroundings as well, for they looked around in all directions with a strange, slightly wide-eyed expression. We could only see by the dim, green glow of our Pip-Boys' flashlights, but it was enough for us all to glance around in amusement.

Just as the cave began veering to the left, we heard someone's footsteps approaching quickly behind us. We turned around, Jon and I with our 10mm pistols raised, and Lucy with her plasma pistol that she picked up earlier. A vault dweller wearing his Vault 117 jumpsuit abruptly came from the shadows and ran right past us, screaming, "Everyone's dead, they killed everyone! We're all gonna die!" He continued around the curve, never stopping to even so much as look at us. His screams suddenly stopped echoing through the cave, and I could have sworn I faintly heard a thud. All three of us kept our weapons raised.

We crept along the tunnel carefully, doing our best to make no noise. There was no telling what had silenced the crazed vault dweller. Did he simply stop screaming, or did someone else induce his silence?

My questions were answered as an Enclave soldier leapt from the shadows and hit Jon in the back, staggering him to the ground. A shot fired from Jon's gun, but it misfired and ricocheted away. The soldier then turned to face me, and Lucy tried to shove him over. He elbowed her in the ribs, and I heard the air leave her lungs as she fell backwards. Never taking his eyes off of me all the while, he charged right at me. I side-stepped quickly, and the soldier just barely missed me by a few inches. Before he could turn around, I threw one arm around his neck while tearing his helmet off with my free hand. I then pulled him to the ground backwards, slid out from under him, and jumped on top of him. I could just barely see in the dim light of my Pip-Boy that he was probably no older than I was, perhaps twenty-two years old at the most. I tried squeezing his throat as hard as I could, but he resisted and spit in my face.

With that, alongside seeing him injure Lucy just a few moments before, I tightened my fist in my right hand and proceeded to swing at his face over and over. A hot, burning wave of red anger that I had never experienced before overcame me. How dare he so much as touch Lucy, let alone knock her to the ground?

I wasn't even sure how much time had passed when I came back to my senses and realized that Jon and Lucy were pulling me backwards off of the soldier. What happened?

Looking at the soldier's face, I realized what exactly I had done. His face was covered in red, and a few of his teeth were now missing. The soldier was knocked out cold. It took a moment before I felt the pain in my hand, and upon looking at it, I saw that my hand was just as red as the soldier's face. I couldn't quite clench my hand now, and I grew worried that I had broken something.

I was breathing heavily, and Lucy and Jon let go of my arms once they were sure that I had snapped out of my little moment of rage. "Are you okay?" Lucy asked softly.

I simply nodded and said, "We should probably keep moving. How hard did he hit you?"

Lucy placed her hand on her lower ribs on the left side and replied, "It was pretty hard, but I'm okay. It's just a little sore."

"And you?" I looked at Jon.

He said back, "The fucking asshole nearly broke my spine." He fisted his back and bent backwards a little, adding, "I'll be fine. Let's just get out of this place."

We carried on through the cave as quickly as possible. I carried my gun in my left hand now, given that I had temporarily ruined my good hand. I wasn't nearly as good of a shot with my left, but it would have to do.

The cave seemed to continue on for a long time, and we ran into no more trouble along the way. That is, not until we spotted some sort of door up ahead that was allowing beams of light through in a striped pattern. On either side of the door were two more Enclave soldiers, but they hadn't noticed us yet as they were talking to each other. We backed up and crouched behind a rock together.

"How should we get past them?" I asked.

Jon said quickly, "Why don't we just shoot our way through? There's only two of them."

"Yeah, but we don't know if there are more of them waiting right outside. I think we need to do this carefully." I tried coming up with ideas in my head as I said this, but nothing worth suggesting came to mind.

Lucy spoke, "What if… What if we went back to the guy who attacked us and took his armor?"

I looked at her and said, "That's only one set, how would that help?"

"Well," she began, "Maybe two of us are prisoners? That way the one wearing the armor is just escorting the other two outside?"

I looked at Jon, and then back at Lucy, "That's actually a really good idea. If it works, it could even keep us in the clear outside if there are other Enclaves out there. We'll blend right in." I paused, looking down.

"What is it?" Jon asked.

I looked back up at both of them, bearing a slight smirk, "It's just that the very idea of the 'outside' never actually seemed so real. And it's right up there, just past those two guards." I was thinking about how the light I saw beaming through the door up ahead was no doubt from the sun. The sun was something I had only ever read about, and heard about. "A lot of shit has happened today, and we don't even know if our friends and family are alive. But, if we just make it out there, we will no longer be prisoners to the vault. We'll be free. I know the vault was our home, but I think I'm ready to move on. To see the world for the first time."

There was a long pause, and then Jon said, "That was a nice little speech, but we should probably do this now if we're going to do it." I nodded, and with that we all bounded back down the cave to retrieve the unconscious guard's armor.

A short time later, we were back near the exit from the cave, getting ready to try out our plan. The armor didn't fit Jon because he was too tall, and did not quite fit me right due to body shape. It actually fit Lucy quite well, and so she was going to have to be our imposter Enclave soldier. With that, Jon and I tied some string we had taken off of the unconscious guard's boots around each other's wrists so that we looked restrained. We tied the false restraints in a way that we could actually pull them free at any moment if shit were to hit the fan.

Taking one last look at our little setup, I nearly laughed. Lucy was struggling to keep her balance with the sheer weight of the Enclave armor, let alone its awkward shape. On top of this, Jon and I having our wrists tied up with shoelace just seemed funny for some reason. Were these guards up ahead really going to buy this? I sure did hope so, because I did not frankly want to have to shoot anyone else tonight. Or today? I had last track of time. When we were awakened, it was somewhere around four o' clock. Yet, there was sunlight shining through the door up ahead. So, from what I remember learning about sunrise, it had to at least be a couple of hours later already. Could that be right?

"Let's get this over with," Lucy said with fear in her voice, mixed with some irritation. She was obviously not fond of being the one to wear the armor.

"Alright," I said quietly, "Jon and I will walk out slowly in front of you, and you keep that plasma gun pointed at our backs. Just stay right on us, that way it looks like you really don't want us to escape."

"What do I say to them when they talk?" Lucy asked.

"Just… Just improvise. If at any moment you think you're going to break or mess it up, just take the first shot at them. Jon and I will see this and help you right away. Okay?" I looked at Lucy, not seeing her face due to the large helmet but knowing that she could see mine. I tried to show the most reassuring look I could manage. With a nod from her, we stepped out from behind the rocks and began walking forward.

The two guards were still in conversation, and didn't even look at us until we were very close. Jon and I kept our heads down, hoping this would hide any sort of expression that might somehow give us away.

"What is this?" the guard on the left asked.

Lucy did her best to maintain posture and spoke, perhaps a little too nervously, "These are… These are some prisoners that we're taking with us."

The two guards looked at each other, then the same guard responded, "I don't remember anything about taking prisoners. Do you?" The other guard shook his head.

Before anything else could be said, Lucy spoke again, "I didn't think we were taking prisoners either, but I was told differently while we were in there."

The other guard spoke finally, "Told by who?" This other guard was actually a female, apparently.

I thought I heard Lucy swallow, "By… By the colonel." Jon and I glanced at each other, heads still down, wondering where she got that from.

The male guard said, "Of course it was the colonel. He never tells us anything."

Then the female guard asked, "Who are you, again?"

Lucy hesitated, "I... I'm the uh… I'm new."

The female guard didn't say anything for a moment, and then said, "You're one of the new recruits?" Lucy nodded. "That would explain your posture. Stand up straight, girl. That power armor isn't getting any lighter, and you'll be wearing it a lot more than you like." The woman's tone was rather sharp, and Lucy actually seemed to straighten her back almost involuntarily.

The male guard said, "Well, we probably ought to let you get along with your orders. What's it like in that rat hole of a vault?"

Lucy said, "Oh, it's just a lot of metal. And full of vault dweller scum, like these two." Lucy jabbed the plasma pistol into Jon's back, and Jon let out a small shout of pain. He was not faking it.

The female guard chuckled, "That's the kind of force you need to show to these cave rats. Keep it up, girl. Just work on that terrible posture of yours." With a nod, Lucy prodded us up towards the door and between the two guards. I think she was having a little too much fun poking us in the back with a genuinely lethal weapon.

We reached the door, and stopped for as long as we could without seeming suspicious to the guards. This was it. We were actually at the surface, with the entire world behind this makeshift, dusty door made of planks. I took a deep breath, and I heard Jon and Lucy do the same. I reached for the door with my not-so-restrained hands and pulled it open swiftly. We all stepped out quickly, the creaky door swinging shut behind us.

My first view of the world was a blinding light. I saw nothing, no forms or shapes. Just white light. The other sensation I experienced was being enveloped in warmth. I felt this warmth slip over my body the moment we had stepped out. I suspected that the other two were experiencing the same sensations.

After some time passed, my eyes were still adjusting while I heard Lucy gasp and Jon mutter, "Holy hell…" I felt some sort of breeze coming from an unknown source as I finally blinked away the last of the chemicals in my eyes that had always allowed me to see in the relative dark of the vault. What I saw before me was the most beautiful, saddening, and exhilarating sight I had ever laid my eyes upon. I felt like I was perceiving distance and space, true space, for the first time. The furthest I had ever seen in the vault was looking down one of the longer hallways on the fourth floor. But this… this was indescribable. I could see structures and rocks and land for as far as my eyes could possibly ever see. The sky was so deep and mesmerizing, it almost made me sick with both joy and with an overwhelming sensation of insignificance. I never truly understood how small I was, how small we all were, until I saw this sight in this very moment. Scattered about the horizon were what I figured to be ruins of the old world. Buildings, bridges, automobiles, roads, and everything in between. Things I never thought I'd actually get to see with my own two eyes, and yet here they were. This was right above our heads our entire lives, and I was perceiving it all for the very first time.

I took a deep breath through my nose. The air felt somehow different, and smelled different. It was heavier in my lungs, and the scent was more complex than anything I had ever smelled. It was a good thing. It was a refreshing breath of air that was not the crisp, clean oxygen that the vault artificially ventilated, and my body welcomed it.

The last thing that I took in fully was the sun. The bright and beautiful glow of the sun. I had to shade my eyes with my hands to look at it, and even then struggled to look at it directly. I wasn't entirely sure I should even do that, but I didn't care. It hung in the sky freely, just above the horizon to signify morning, not screwed into a light fixture or anything of the kind. Instead, our planet was revolving around it at thousands of miles per hour, suspended by nothing but the universe's gravity, and it burned endlessly with its power to fuel the entire world by its generous, radiating energy. The sheet of light that it lay across the land almost seemed to scorch the earth, but not in the same merciless way that the nuclear bombs had scorched it two-hundred years ago. This, instead, rested a glowing blanket of life over the landscape, seeming to tease a strange sort of beauty out of the destroyed landscape. A couple of small tears ran down the sides of my cheeks, in part from my eyes adjusting to the brightness. The other cause was the overwhelming nature of truly seeing Earth as it was.

It took us all awhile to finish taking everything in. I realized eventually that the other beautiful thing in this moment was that there were no Enclaves out here that we could see. My guess was that they were already spread pretty thin as it was. I then noticed that Lucy had removed the cumbersome Enclave helmet, and Jon had completely taken off his mock restraints. I did the same, throwing the stolen shoelaces in my backpack in case I might need them later.

Jon spoke finally, "I wish Jaclyn and Aaron were here to see this."

It hadn't even dawned on me in a while now that we didn't even know where my brother or Jon's sister were. Var was in there somewhere, too. Jon had at least saw him during the attack. But did they make it? They could be escaping right now. Or, they could be dead while we were standing outside enjoying the surface for the first time.

"I'm sure they're fine," Lucy reassured, "I think Jaclyn and Aaron can hold their own. And you saw Var with Thomas, right Jon? Maybe there's a chance Thomas is helping Var get out."

I spoke, "Yeah, he modified Thomas quite a bit where he can do all sorts of things most Mr. Handy models can't do. If anyone is getting Var out right now, it would be his own creation."

We all sat in silence for a moment, still taking in the welcoming sunlight. Jon said, "So, what do we do now?"

I didn't actually know how to answer that. We were out now, on the surface. We were free, thanks to the Enclave strangely enough. However, we were now burdened with the decision of where to go next. "Well," I began, "Let me pull up the map of the general area. Should still be on here, if I'm not mistaken." I had put together a map of the Capital Wasteland based on things we learned in school, combined with places that Jaclyn told us about that she had learned through her monitoring of the surface. I pulled up the map carefully on my Pip-Boy, being sure not to hurt my hand too much as I clicked on the buttons. My hand was in a lot of pain from beating the Enclave soldier's face in earlier.

While I examined the map, Jon said to Lucy, "That was some good acting in there, how the hell did you know to say a colonel gave you orders?"

She responded, "I didn't really know, I just thought I heard an Enclave refer to another by that title while we were running through the vault at one point."

I spoke while messing with my Pip-Boy, "I liked the part where you kept jabbing Jon in the back. That seemed to impress the one guard in there." I glanced up at Jon, smirking.

He said back jokingly, "Yeah, that fucking hurt! My back was still in pain from getting kicked before. You need to watch your girlfriend better, Collin."

Lucy put her hand on her side and said to Jon with some sass, "He doesn't 'watch' me, he's just with me. Maybe you shouldn't be such a pussy about a little pain!"

I laughed at this remark, and Jon said while laughing, "Well damn, sorry!"

After a few more little remarks to each other, I spoke, "It looks like we're between a place called the Chryslus Building and an old station called West Farragut Metro. Downtown D.C. is to the east of here, but we definitely don't wanna go there if I'm recalling Jaclyn's stories correctly. I think our best bet is this town called Megaton. My location notes that I wrote down a long time ago say there's food, places to sleep and all that there. Again, all info from Jaclyn. And a little fun fact, it's the first place the Lone Wanderer went to when he first got out of Vault 101."

"How far is it?" Jon asked.

"Well, it's a little ways to the southwest. Out here, I honestly have no idea how to judge distance. But if I had to guess, it'll be a bit of a walk. A few hours, maybe?" I kept looking over the map, trying to get a feel for everything around us.

"Should we try and wait it out for the others? What if Var, Aaron or Jaclyn comes out?" Lucy said with some concern.

I replied, "I think the longer we wait, the more danger we'll be in of some Enclaves showing up. If anyone we know is going to make it out, then they'll find their way at that point. I hate saying this, but we can only really hope."

Once we were all in agreement, we started walking down the hill we were on so that we could head in the right direction. Lucy left the power armor behind, as it was far too hindering and difficult to wear. I had taken a water bottle out of my backpack and was sharing it with Jon and Lucy as we walked down. I had realized my thirst when we started walking and really felt the growing heat of the wasteland. I turned around and took one last good look at the little door that lead to what used to be my entire world. I was born in that vault, I was raised in that vault, and I thought I was going to die in that vault. That's what they always told us. Everything had changed overnight, though, for we were now going to face the true world. Right now, it was only the heat that I could perceive as a challenge to overcome, but I was sure there was more than that waiting for us. I just hoped that my brother escaped with Jaclyn, and that Var made it out with Thomas. I hoped that we were going to make it in this allegedly unforgiving world, and I hoped that we made it to this town called Megaton so that we could get a grip on the new realm we were now exploring. In the end, I just hoped we could all stick together and figure out this place one day at a time.

I looked away from the wooden door, facing forward again. I took a swig from the already warm water bottle, wiping sweat off of my forehead. It was only morning right now, how much worse could it get?


	4. Chapter 4 - In Debt On Day One

**Chapter 4 – In Debt On Day One**

* * *

If the map on my Pip-Boy was even remotely accurate, I figured we should be seeing Megaton somewhere in the horizon any time now. Of course, I was sort of new to the whole 'looking into the horizon' thing, given that I had lived underground for the entire twenty-one years of my life. I thought it might take a good while to master spatial judgement. At one point, I thought we were very far from an upcoming bridge, only to come up on it within five minutes. At another, I thought some place on my map called Super-Duper Mart would be close by, and then we didn't see it for at least a half an hour. It felt weird to me to even be associating time and distance together so strongly, for in the vault I never really had to worry about much more than being somewhere within five minutes.

Jon, Lucy and I were already starting to get a feel for the Wasteland's struggles. This single walk to a town had so far introduced us to four mole rat attacks, two attacks by some very large, flying insect, and avoiding what we thought might be a radscorpion in the distance. We all looked pretty beat up. Jon had a slight hunch because of his back being in pain, on top of a burn on his arm caused by some of the insect's weird, goopy poison that it had spit on him. Lucy was walking funny in an attempt to ease the pain in her ribs from getting hit while in the caves, and she kept feeling the bruise every now and then. I most definitely felt like complete and utter shit. My hand was throbbing still from punching the guard out, and it had swollen a great deal. My neck was bruised from when the one Enclave soldier had tried to choke me, and this had made my throat sore. Anytime I spoke, a raspy noise was now present. The worst part for me, though, was definitely the headache. I had a severe, pulsing throb in my head that would not go away, and the pressure was almost making me nauseous. The heat out here did not help, either. I was used to a consistent seventy-one degrees Fahrenheit in the vault, but out here had to be at least fifteen degrees warmer. Dragging ourselves along with sore, tired legs was just the icing on the cake.

"I think… I think that's it," Jon said suddenly.

"That just looks like… a big piece of metal, doesn't it?" Lucy asked.

I squinted my eyes. I did see a large object forming in the distance, but I couldn't really make it out. I said, "It might be what we're looking for. We might as well go find out. If that's not it, then we're lost." I really hoped we weren't lost. We had been walking for several hours, and the sun was now beating down directly over us. If this Megaton place had a place to sit out of the heat, that's where I wanted to be. And food. I could really go for some food.

Once we reached the big hunk of metal, we stopped and listened while looking the metal walls up and down. Without a doubt, there were noises coming from inside that indicated there were people. Now we just had to figure out how to get inside, because where we were standing, there was no entrance.

It was a relief when we walked around the structure and came upon an entrance, but we approached cautiously. There were robot guards standing out front, and they were models that we did not have in the vault. I remember learning about them, though. The one on the right was called a Protectron, and the left was a Sentry Bot.

As we approached, the Protectron said in an extremely robotic voice, "Welcome, to Megaton. Please-"

In the middle of its sentence, the Sentry Bot said in a very authoritative, robotic voice, "Move along, citizens." We all glanced at each other, happy that this was definitely Megaton but a little put off by the robots.

We heard a man's voice above us yell, "We've got visitors, open the doors!" I looked up and saw an armored man with a rifle. He was turned around and calling to whoever the door operator might be. Suddenly, some sort of machine turned on, seeming to rattle the entire metal structure as it pulled apart the doors. This gave way to the little city right away.

I thought the sight was amazing as we walked in. This whole town looked to be slapped together by sheet metal and random junk, stacking upwards and looking like it could fall down at any moment. For all I knew, it probably could. There were people, real-life wastelanders wondering about everywhere and going about their business. A woman wearing a brimmed hat and baggy, dusty clothes led a two-headed cow past us that was pulling a cart of assorted goods behind it.

We watched it go by in amazement. The effects of long-term radiation had already proven to be quite drastic, given the giant mole-rats, scorpions and insects, but a two-headed animal just seemed to really capture the meaning of radiation.

I heard a man chuckle while we watched the animal, saying, "Ahaha, that would be called a Brahmin, newcomers." Jon, Lucy and I turned to look at the speaker. He was a tall, black man wearing a cowboy hat and a brown, dusty sheriff's uniform. A rifle was slung on his back, he had a thick beard, and his eyes were set on us with a smile. His voice was deep as he spoke, "Welcome to Megaton. The name's Lucas Simms. I hope our Sentry Bot out there didn't scare you, we just installed him recently. His dialogue is pretty strictly limited. Some people in the town put together the caps to afford it, that way we can feel a little more protected. Our little settlement has been flourishing these days, due to the Lone Wanderer's fine work. That boy's actions have somehow got people coming in and out of Megaton nowadays, and with that comes their caps."

After glancing at each other, I spoke, "Sorry for staring, sir. It's just that you are the first person from outside our vault that we've ever talked to."

Lucas looked us all up and down, seeming to actually take us in for the first time. He laughed and said, "It's just like the Lone Wanderer! He came stumbling out of a vault just like you did, and wearing his vault jumpsuit no less. And you know who the first person he met out here was? You're lookin' at him!"

Jon asked, surprised, "You knew the Lone Wanderer?"

"Knew him?" Lucas chuckled, "Still do, he's got him a house here! Of course, he's been gone for some time now, ever since all that talk about some sort of water purifier started going around." He seemed to detect confusion on our expressions, saying, "Of course, you all wouldn't have heard. It's fairly recent news. But, how did you know about the Wanderer in the first place? When did you get out of your vault?"

I responded, "We just got out about four or five hours ago."

Lucas seemed confused, "I thought I was the first person you met, where'd ya hear about him from?"

Jon spoke this time, "Our vault was a little different from most vaults. We had access to outside information, my sister was one of the people who listened in on radio broadcasts. She passed the word along to us."

Lucas was surprised, "Wow, that's the first I've heard of any vault knowing anything about the Wasteland. Well, welcome to the surface! Perhaps I should give you some pointers?" We all agreed, and he continued, "Alright. Well, where do I begin? That there is the clinic. Go there when ya get sick or hurt, Doc Church will take care of you. That's the Brass Lantern, ran by Jenny Stahl. Some good food there if you're hungry. Let's see…" he shaded his eyes against the sun and looked at some of the buildings that were higher up, "Moira at Craterside Supply can fix you up with some nice weaponry, which you will definitely need if you plan on traveling. And that there is Moriarty's Saloon. It's got alcohol and whores, if that's your thing. Moriarty also has rooms for rent, so you might want to go talk to him first and foremost if ya want a place to stay."

"You mentioned caps before," I said, "is that a form of currency here?"

"Oh, of course, I never explained. You are correct. Caps are the currency, and not just in Megaton. It seems to be that way from the East Coast to the West Coast. The west has some other kinds of money floating about as well, but none of that matters here. Anyhow, I suppose you all don't have any caps at all, do you?" We shook our heads, and he carried on in a quieter voice, "Well, I'd still talk to Moriarty. He might work something out with you. But, be careful with him. I may be Mayor here, but he runs the town when it comes to caps, no denying it."

I spoke, "Thank you, Mr. Simms. You've been very helpful." Shaking his hand, I realized we never told him our names. After doing so, he wished us luck and walked off.

"So," Lucy said, "should we go talk to this Moriarty guy?"

"I guess so," I responded, "It sounds like we have to if we want somewhere to sleep tonight."

Jon was fisting his back again as he said, "Yeah, I'm not sleeping on the ground. I need a mattress." With that, we walked over to the nearest ramp and headed upwards, navigating our way towards the saloon.

The way up was actually a little more confusing than we had originally thought, with ramps and pathways twisting around to various other buildings. We eventually ended up in front of our destination, a large sign overhead spelling out 'Moriarty's Saloon.' Without any hesitation, we pushed open the door and walked in.

I noticed the smell first. It was a combination of booze and body odor, alongside various other scents I could not quite identify. I was not sure I wanted to. The saloon had quite a few people in it, sitting around and chatting over drinks and cigarettes. The next thing I noticed, or I suppose we all three noticed, was the man standing behind the bar. The flesh on his face appeared to be rotting right off, and I could hear as he talked to a customer that his voice was extraordinarily raspy. Frankly, the man looked like a zombie. Yet, he seemed to be having a good exchange with the customer he was talking to. It was just very off-putting to see someone that looked like that.

While we were staring, a very scantily dressed woman with short, red hair had come up to Jon and was rubbing up very close to him. She said in an almost whispery voice, "Hey there, sugar. Is there anything I can help you with?"

Just as that was happening, another underdressed woman with blonde hair came up to me, flaunting her breasts and rubbing her hand down my arm with a smile, "How about you? You look like you could use some company, honey. My name is Cherry."

Lucy reached for my hand and grabbed it tightly, pulling me towards her as she said bluntly, "He's got me, but thanks."

Cherry giggled, saying, "Hey now, let's not be selfish. You could join too, and we could both show your man a good time together." She winked at me, and then tried to rub up against Lucy.

Lucy stepped back and said angrily, "Don't touch him again."

"Alright, fine," Cherry said, still smiling, "Just let me know when you're feeling the urge." The girl walked off, moving on to another man sitting at the bar. Looking back at Jon, I could see that he was smiling as the red haired girl walked away from him as well.

"I like her, she's nice," Jon said, still grinning stupidly, "Her name is Nova."

I laughed at him and said, "I'm sure she was nice, Jon. We have to talk to this Moriarty guy still, though. Whoever the hell he might be."

"He's standin' right behind you," a voice said. We turned to face an older man with white hair and a beard. "My name is Colin Moriarty. The question is, who the hell are you lads?" He spoke with some sort of accent.

"Oh," I started, "Hello. My name is actually Collin as well." I tried to smile at the man.

He bore a rather uninterested expression as he replied, "That's fucking wonderful, kid. Glad we share the same name." He paused, looking me up and down. "Ya don't look Irish, why's your name Collin?" I didn't know how to answer that, and he continued, "I think you're more Jewish-looking. Got that shit brown hair, brown eyes, and ya hair's got those Jewish curls forming at the very tips."

All I could say was, "Um, okay…"

Moriarty kept going, turning to Jon now, "And look at this one. Ha! Straight from the Aryan race if I ever saw it."

Jon replied, "You mean like the Nazi's?"

"Well yeah," Moriarty laughed, "Ya got blonde hair and blue eyes, don't ya? I see you know your history, impressive for a vault dweller." He immediately recognized us as vault dwellers from our jumpsuits. He continued, "Only, you're too skinny. You got the face of a Nazi, but the skinniness of a holocaust victim. Aha, don't ya think so, Billy?"

A man at the bar wearing an eyepatch laughed, raising his beer slightly as he said, "Straight out of Auschwitz!" He and Moriarty shared a laughed.

I wondered in my head what the fuck was going on, Lucy just looked annoyed, and Jon appeared to be growing angry. I spoke at the end of the laughter, "We need a place to stay, and we were told to talk to you."

"Alright then, right to the chase," Moriarty responded. "I don't run a homeless shelter here, do ya have some caps for me?"

"Well, no, but-"

Moriarty cut me off, "Then why the fuck are you bothering me?"

I just stood there, not knowing what to say. Lucy spoke up instead, "We met a man named Lucas Simms on our way in. He told us you might work something out with us."

Moriarty said sarcastically, "Aw, did he say that now? I'm just a really sweet man who's here to offer people free rooms so they don't have to sleep in the dirt." He switched back to a serious tone, "I don't give handouts, or a fuck, for that matter. If ya don't have the caps, then I'm going to have to kindly ask you to get the hell out of my saloon."

Jon said abruptly, "What's your fucking deal, man?"

"I'd watch yourself, kid. I'm not pussyfooting around here," Moriarty stated calmly, but sharply.

Lucy spoke again, this time angrily, "If you'd listen to us, we're not asking for free rooms. We want to work something out, maybe do some work for you in exchange for making our first night in the Wasteland not so shitty."

Moriarty chuckled, "Well, you've got some sass, don't you? And you're a pretty one. I have some work for you, if you want my girls to teach ya. Cherry is my newest girl, but Nova's been around awhile if ya want her to-"

"I'm not a slut, and I'm not for sale," Lucy said bluntly. This guy was really starting to piss me off, but Lucy was holding her own.

"Alright, alright," Moriarty gave in finally, "It's a free world, ya don't have to. It'd make ya much more money, but I got other jobs for you all. This is your first day in the Wasteland?" We nodded. "Aha, just like the Lone Wanderer for you vault kids to end up here, beggin' for my help. Okay, I'll give ya two rooms. That way you two can have your privacy together," he referred to me and Lucy, "and the other room for Auschwitz."

Jon was obviously getting fed up, "My name is Jon."

"Well," Moriarty said in a blatant tone, "if I'm givin' ya rooms, I call you Auschwitz whenever I damn well please. I'll have work for you kids tomorrow, but for now, here are your keys." He handed one key to me, and one to Jon. "Upstairs on the second level, last two rooms on the left. Don't go up the other stairs, the new rooms we're building are up there." Before we could thank him, he turned his back to us and disappeared into a back room.

Jon blurted instantly, "Well he was a dick."

I responded, "I agree, but we have rooms now. That's what we came here for."

Lucy nudged me, and whispered, "Hey, I think he wants to talk to us."

The decaying man at the bar was waving us over, uttering in his raspy voice, "Pssst. Hey, vaulties, over here for a sec." We all three looked at each other, then walked up to the bar slowly. He spoke again as we were all near, chuckling, "It's alright, I'm sure you've never seen a Ghoul before. My name's Gob, I won't bite ya or anything."

I hesitated for a moment, then spoke, "It's… It's nice to meet you, Gob. I'm Collin." I stuck my hand out to shake his hand. He shook it back, his hand feeling very rough and leathery. Jon and Lucy both introduced themselves as well.

"Wow," Gob said with a smile, "such good manners. I'm starting to think vaulties are more accepting of Ghouls than anyone I've ever met, and most of you have never laid eyes on one of us before."

I smiled at the man, and said, "Hey, no reason to forget manners just because you look different."

"Be honest though, you nearly shit your pants when you first saw my ugly-ass face," Gob said with a smile, looking at all three of us. Realizing he was comfortably poking fun at himself, just like Var would at his disability, we all chuckled. "So, the reason I called you over here," he lowered his voice suddenly, "is that I heard you guys talking to Moriarty. I just want to warn you about him."

Jon said, "Oh, we were warned by the Mayor already earlier. He just told us to be careful."

Gob responded, "Yeah, well, he wasn't just warning you about Moriarty being a bit of an ass. If you're going to be staying here in exchange for work, just make sure you do other things on the side to pay your debts. Otherwise you won't be leaving here anytime soon."

"Oh, we don't really plan on leaving right now, we just got here," Lucy said, smiling.

"No, I don't think you understand. The way Moriarty does things, your debts will pile up so quickly, he'll make sure you never leave. I'm talking years and years. And trust me, however scary the Wasteland might be, I wish I could just go for a little trip all the time."

Lucy spoke with concern, "Are you in debt to Moriarty?"

Gob said in a saddened voice, "Yeah, I've been here long as I can remember. Started out the same way, I showed up with practically nothin', he let me stay if I worked, and next thing you know the work never caught up to the debt he says I owed him."

Jon said with sympathy, "That's terrible, man. I wish we could help."

"Hey," Gob tried to perk up, "It's no big deal. I'm just used to it by now, and besides, a Ghoul like me's got nothin' better to do."

"What do you think we should do, then?" Lucy asked.

Gob responded instantly, "Stay out of the trap. I understand you gotta sleep somewhere, so you'll be fine for a little while. But if a little while starts getting longer than a month, get out of it as fast as you can. Get your debts paid, and go make some real caps out in the world. It might be tough, but it's better than being Moriarty's slave for the rest of your life."

I thanked him, "You've been a great help, Gob. Really, thank you for telling us all of that."

"No problem kid, it's my pleasure," Gob replied with a worried smile. His raspy voice was actually starting to feel almost comforting, and he seemed genuinely concerned for our wellbeing. He said to me, "You don't look so good. I mean, I figure you're all in bad shape, leavin' your vault today and all, but you in particular look kinda rough."

I responded, rubbing my eyes, "Yeah, I just have this terrible headache. Hasn't gone away all day."

"You dehydrated? The Wasteland is good at sucking the water right out of ya."

"I don't think so, we had water bottles with us along the way. We haven't eaten, and I'm definitely hungry, but I don't think it's that." Right as I finished my sentence, I caught a whiff of brewing coffee. I looked over and saw the steam trickling out of a coffee maker as it dripped the dark liquid into a pot.

Gob saw me looking at it, and recognized right away, "Ah, a coffee addict?" I nodded. "That's where the headache is comin' from. I feel ya, I have to have a cup every morning just to function at this damn saloon. Would you like a cup?"

I replied, "Yes, please. If it's no trouble."

"Well, I'll have to take it out of my own funds just to be safe, but I'm more than happy to. Like I said, I'm not going anywhere." After Gob said this, I tried to refuse, but he poured the cup of coffee anyways. He slid it over to me, and I smelled the cup before taking a sip, the steam rolling into my nose. I could already feel the headache dissipating just from the aroma.

"You, sir, are a life saver," I said to Gob over the mug, taking as big of a sip as I could without burning my tongue.

Gob smiled, "If I ever have a favor, maybe I can count on you guys to help me out. For now, though, consider it a friendly gesture. Would either of you two like anything?"

Jon replied right away, "Got any Nuka-Cola back there?"

"Sure do," he handed Jon a bottle from under the counter, turning to Lucy, "And you?"

She rolled her eyes at me and Jon, saying, "Water is fine, thank you."

After handing Lucy a glass of water, Gob pulled out a clipboard and began righting on it, saying, "I wish you three the best of luck. Come by for a chat anytime, a Ghoul gets lonely around here. Especially when the Lone Wanderer doesn't stop by for a while."

With that, we went and sat at an empty table in the corner. The chairs and tables were rather dirty, but we were just happy to sit down.

"Is it me," Jon began, "or is everyone comparing us to the Lone Wanderer?"

"Seriously, every single person we've talked to has made a comment about it," Lucy said in agreement.

I agreed as well, "It sounds like we're practically walking in his footsteps so far."

With that, we all sat in silence for a long while. I tried to recount the events of the day, and the day seemed so long in my head. It already felt like ages ago that we were sitting in a diner in the vault and passively speculating about our vault being in danger. We never even had the time to actually begin worrying about it, and yet here we were, sitting in a saloon out in the wasteland. I wondered if Jon and Lucy were thinking about the same thing as I was. I also wondered if they were as worried as I was about whether Aaron, Jaclyn and Var made it out alive. I'd feel a whole lot better about this entire Wasteland business if we at least had our old group together. The unlikeliness of their survival, however, seemed far too great compared to the chances that they had faced the same fate as most of the other vault dwellers. Jon, Lucy and I were just extremely lucky, right?

* * *

 _I would like to thank any readers who are taking the time to read my story thus far. This is my very first fanfiction, and with that, I look forward to any future followers and reviewers I might receive. I am not looking for anyone to go easy on me; give me all the constructive criticism that you've got. Or, simply keep reading. I am here for both the joy of writing, and for the improvement of it. I will try to keep the chapters coming. I know they are long, but I do not apologize for this. I like a more in-depth buildup, and I plan to keep it this way. If that is what you like, then expect more of that!_


	5. Chapter 5 - A Job for the Willing

**Chapter 5 – A Job for the Willing**

I thought sleep would come easily tonight, but I was completely wrong. I just figured that, having been woken up at around four or five in the morning by Enclaves invading my home, plus traveling the Wasteland for the first time and sustaining a couple of minor injuries, I would be exhausted. And I was, but I still could not get myself to fall asleep. My hand felt much better, at least. Lucy forced me to let her inject it with one of the few stimpaks we brought along from the vault, and it definitely worked wonders. Thanks to the medicine's rapid-regeneration capabilities, you almost couldn't even tell my hand was ever injured at all within just a couple of hours after she injected it. The contents of the stimpak had also seeped through the rest of my bloodstream, obviously, so some of my other more minor scratches and bruises had healed up as well.

Yet, despite feeling much better physically, sleep would not come my way. I suppose part of it was being in a new place, which was basically a first for me. There were no new places in the vault. But here, I was lying on a very small, uncomfortable mattress upon a creaky bed that I was sharing with Lucy. The room was dusty, the bar downstairs was still slightly noisy with some late-night partakers of alcohol and gambling, and to top it off was the fact that I was in the Wasteland. I still couldn't wrap my head around it; could this really be real? Literally the night before, I had went to my familiar bed in my very own vault quarters, never so much as having the slightest inkling that I'd actually live to see the surface. Perhaps this was just an extremely vivid dream, and I'd wake up any moment.

That couldn't be true, though, because here I was trying to do the very thing that allows for dreaming to occur in the first place. Plus, everything that had happened was all too real. I still saw the green flashes of the Enclaves' plasma weapons when I closed my eyes, and I still saw in my mind what had happened to those who were so unfortunate as to be struck with the plasma. The first time I saw it happen with my neighbor, Charles, seemed most prominent in my memory. The way the skin on his body had liquefied and sizzled with the plasma was… Well, it was frankly traumatizing. I also couldn't help but remember that I had killed – actually ended lives – of real people. I know they were Enclave soldiers and that I was just defending myself and Lucy, but the fact that I had to kill at all was no less sickening.

The thought of this actually made me nauseous like it had when I first committed the act, and I had to sit up in the bed just so I could keep whatever was left in my empty stomach from coming up. We were never able to eat before the day was over due to our lack of caps to spend, but this didn't stop my stomach from feeling the need to empty itself. I did have a little bit of water next to my bed, so I took a couple of gulps of it to ease my stomach. The water here in Megaton tasted a little bit funny, but it did seem to help.

I turned and looked at Lucy lying perfectly still, sound asleep. She fell asleep quite a while ago when we both first lied down, after a little bit of conversation. Jon was one room over, and I wondered if he found sleep yet. I figured if Lucy could, then I could. Knowing that she was okay and lying right next to me made me feel better, so I laid back down and made my best effort to keep my eyes closed. I distracted myself from thinking about everything that had happened by thinking about tomorrow. We would wake up, go find out what kind of work Colin Moriarty had for us, and afterwards I planned on asking around town for other jobs. Thanks to Gob's advice, I wanted to get a head start on keeping out of debt. Moriarty was a dick in conversation, and it also sounded like he was not the kind of guy to get too involved with financially.

I then comforted myself with a made-up image in my head that Var, Aaron and Jaclyn had somehow made it out of the vault alive and were sleeping around a campfire in a not-so-hostile part of the Wasteland. I knew they didn't actually know how to build a campfire, and I had never actually seen one myself, but the thought was still nice. I was also aware that the entire Wasteland was probably hostile and dangerous, but that was beside the point. Wherever they were, they just had to be alive. If Jon, Lucy and I could make it, then so could they. With this little bit of hope in mind, I finally drifted into the sleep that I desired so badly.

Waking up was rather difficult the next morning. I slept very deeply once I actually did fall asleep. I thought much of the exhaustion might have actually been from the stimpak, for their healing capabilities were very taxing on one's energy. The body healed much faster with a stimpak injection, but the same amount of energy was required as if I had let my wounds heal naturally.

Lucy was standing over me now, urging me, "Come on, Collin. Get up! It's so late, we should probably get going." I let out a groan and put the blanket over my head, but Lucy pulled it back down, "Seriously, it's eleven in the morning. I've been awake for two hours just laying here."

"That's not my fault, you could have just kept sleeping like me," I mumbled, adjusting my eyes as I opened them finally.

"I'm not a lazy bum like you are," Lucy retaliated. I smiled, reached my arms around her and pulled her down over me.

She laughed and kissed me, and I said, "Come on, just a little longer!"

"No, we're getting up right now!" We kissed a few more times, and then I sat up in the bed.

I said after a yawn, "Should we go see if Jon is up yet?"

Lucy replied, "Yeah, he's definitely not awake. Didn't he always sleep until like three in the afternoon on the weekends when you guys didn't have guard duty?"

I laughed, "Yep, he always got up for work, but when there was nothing going on, he'd sleep as long as you let him."

We both slid into our dirt-covered Vault 117 jumpsuits, left the room and locked the door. I brought my 10mm with me just in case, but I knew I probably wouldn't need it while we were in Megaton. Turning to see if Jon was still in his room, we saw that his door was left slightly open and that he was not inside. Lucy and I gave each other a slightly worried glance, and we headed down the stairs.

Entering the saloon area revealed Jon's whereabouts. He was sitting at the bar with Gob and the man with the eyepatch from the day before that Moriarty had called Billy. There was an array of Grognak cards spread across the bar counter, both Gob and Billy hunched over them attentively as Jon explained the cards.

"So," Billy with the eyepatch said, "the two numbers on the card are its amount of health?"

Gob jumped in with his raspy voice, "Nah, I think what he's saying is the first number and second number are both different. The first one is attack power, and the second is health."

Jon spoke, "Right. For example, this warrior card here says he's a 5/5. That isn't 5 health out of 5, it's just how they represent the two attributes. There could be a card with 4/3, which means it has 4 attack and 3 health. Like this card here," Jon pointed at a card on the table as Billy rubbed his chin. Billy then nodded and began asking more questions.

Lucy and I walked up, and I said to Jon, "You actually brought your Grognak cards from the vault?"

Jon turned to us, saying, "Well, look who's awake! Were you two having some morning fun time together in your room, or were you exhausted from doing it last night before bed?" Gob and Billy laughed.

I smiled, shaking my head and reiterating, "I can't believe you took the time to grab your cards before escaping the vault."

"Why the fuck not?" Jon exclaimed, "I just grabbed my shit while I was packing up, and I happened to throw those in."

Billy spoke now, "And it's a good thing he did, I've never seen this game before. It looks fun, very intriguing." The man showed a rough smile between his mustache and goatee, scratching his head under his white bandana.

"Yeah, get this," Jon began, "they don't have this game out here. These guys have never heard of it. It must have got burned up with the bombs two-hundred years ago. This might be the only copy of the game in the Wasteland."

"We've heard of the Grognak comics," Gob said, "just never a card game based on it."

"Really? What have you taught them so far, Jon?" I sat at the bar with them, now interested. Lucy sat too, muttering the word "nerds" as she did so. We glanced at her with a chuckle, then talked about some of the other cards Jon had placed out.

Billy set his hand on the table, "Tell you what, I'll give you 50 caps for what you've taught Gob and I so far." Billy slid a handful of bottle caps to Jon, "Finish teaching it to us, I'll give ya 50 more. If we like the game after playing a few times, I'll give you some paper to make a copy of it, and I'll pay you, say… 150 more caps?"

Jon's eyes grew wide, and said, "Damn, you've got a deal!"

Gob saw the surprise in all of our faces, and he spoke up, "We don't got a lot of things to do out here in the Wasteland, especially when we're settled in a town like this. Any sort of entertainment is a commodity."

"I'll betchya there are some other people that come in here who'd pay for the game, too," Billy added.

A voice from behind said, "Too bad I won't let any faggoty games be sold in my saloon."

We all knew it was Moriarty's voice, and Jon turned to ask, "Why not?"

Moriarty eyed him, "Because this is my saloon, and the caps that come through here are mine. Don't be sellin' anything in here, or I'll have you out and sleeping in the dirt immediately." Right now, his Irish accent was annoying me. I'm sure it was annoying Jon as well, and probably Lucy.

Billy jumped in, "Ah, come on, Moriarty. These kids just got out here yesterday. They have nothin'. Cut 'em some slack."

"They're going to learn the way it is out here like all of us had to: The hard way. I do believe those fifty caps are mine, Auschwitz." Moriarty held out his hand, and Jon handed the caps over reluctantly, rolling his eyes. Moriarty continued, "Good. Rooms are 120 caps a night, so you just owe 70 more. Your friends here still got the full 120, so consider yourself lucky."

Jon spoke up, "Split the 50 between my room and theirs, we'll get it worked off together."

"Alright then," Moriarty said, crossing his arms, "That leaves 95 caps for each room. If you want to start working the rest off, go scrub out the restrooms in the back. They're new, but they get dirty real fast."

I asked, "What are our wages?"

Moriarty put a finger on his chin, "Hmm… Let's go with 10 caps an hour. Sound fair?"

I thought about that for a moment, and then said, "Ignoring what we already owe, that would require us to work 12 hours a day just to stay here. We're going to need more for food and other things."

"You best get started, then," Moriarty said without hesitation, and he walked out of the front door before I could say anything else.

"What an ass," Jon said as soon as Moriarty was gone.

"I warned ya, didn't I?" Gob responded.

Jon seemed very irritated, "The game isn't 'faggoty', whatever that means."

"Means homosexual," Gob answered.

Jon's expression displayed confusion, "How is that insulting?"

"It's not," Billy replied this time, "Moriarty just uses old-fashioned words sometimes. Nobody says that as an insult anymore. It's 2277, for fuck's sake." Billy reached in his pocket and pulled out another handful of caps, "Here's the other 50 I said I'd give for finishing teaching the game, I'll pay ya in advance. Come over to my place sometime soon and we can all have a drink together while playing it."

Gob added, "Don't let Moriarty take that from you this time, go get some food with the caps. All three of you look as pale as a mirelurk." We didn't know what a mirelurk was, but I'm sure it meant we didn't look well.

"In case you two missed it," Billy pointed at Lucy and me, "the full name's Billy Creel, if ya care to know." We shook hands with him, and after a few more exchanges with him and Gob, Jon gathered up the Grognak cards and we left the saloon.

Stepping out in to the sun, I said to Jon, "I can't believe you were awake before us this morning."

"Yeah, I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep, so I figured I'd go hang out at the bar. Turned out that Billy guy was really cool, so he, Gob and I all started shooting the shit for a while until eventually I was showing them the game." Jon seemed very pleased with how his morning went so far, aside from the recent encounter with Moriarty.

"So, I don't know about you guys," Lucy jumped in, "but I really don't want to clean bathrooms all day. Or for the rest of my life, for that matter. I think we should go ask around town for some jobs. After we get some food, first." She grabbed her stomach; it was likely growling as much as mine was.

Jon agreed, "Yeah, I'm fucking hungry. Let's go see what we can do with these 50 caps."

We managed to get a small cut of some Brahmin steak, alongside a helping of Insta-mash. It wasn't much, but it was all Jenny Stahl at the Brass Lantern could agree to. She was a nice lady, but given our lack of caps, the amount of food she did give us was actually relatively generous. On top of that, the food was surprisingly good. It might have partially been the fact that we basically hadn't eaten since two nights before, but it still tasted quite delicious. The Brahmin steak was heavenly, for I had never tasted fresh meat before. The vault's meals were entirely made up of some form of preserved food item or another. The Insta-mash was a bit watery, but this didn't stop me from scarfing it down after the steak in order to fill my empty stomach. We needed to start making caps fast, because I felt like I could eat ten more meals of the same size right then.

We had just returned our plates to the Brass Lantern when we were approached by Lucas Simms, and he spoke in his deep voice, "Hey there, you three. I hope all is well. Any chance the Mayor could have a word?" I thought it was strange that he referred to himself in third person like that, but I disregarded it and nodded with Jon and Lucy.

Lucas led us just a little bit away from the Brass Lantern, out of earshot of other people. He started by asking, "How was your first night in our fine town?"

We all said it was good, and I added, "We're just figuring things out, looking for a way to start making caps and such."

Lucas had a slight smile on his face as he began saying, "It's funny you mention that." He paused, looked around to ensure no one was listening in, and continued, "I have a job I need done, for whoever is willing to do it. A big one. I've just been trying to think of the right people to ask, and I figured I'd give you three a shot." He stopped, presumably waiting to see if we cared to hear his offer.

I spoke after glancing at Lucy and Jon, "We're listening."

Lucas nodded, "Alright. Well, I know you three don't have any caps, and this job will pay very well. Because it's dangerous. But I need it done, and it is hard to find anyone in Megaton that will do it for me."

I asked, "What kind of job is dangerous enough that no one here will do it?"

Lucas shook his head slightly, "That's not actually why no one has agreed to do it yet. Most people here have experienced their fair share of danger. It's that everyone here is settled and they don't want to leave for even a short amount of time."

Jon asked this time, "Wait, what does leaving have to do with this job? What is it?"

Lucas sighed, and finally he said, "I need you three to deliver some information to a place in downtown D.C."

We all looked at each other somewhat incredulously, knowing from what we've heard that downtown D.C. was quite possibly the last place you should ever go to in the Capital Wasteland. I hesitated, "I… We don't even know how to survive..."

Lucy said, "We just came out of our vault yesterday… _Yesterday._ "

As we were spewing out every reason we could think of as to why we should not head out into the Wasteland, Lucas interrupted all of us by saying, "I'll pay 5,000 caps. Each."

We all fell silent with our mouths hanging halfway open. After we sat there for a moment, Lucas spoke again, smirking, "I see I've caught your interest. I have an envelope with the information inside of it, and it is sealed. The information inside is encrypted such that only the recipient whom you'd be delivering to could decipher it. You three will not know the contents of the envelope, which will protect you should the information be… intercepted on your journey. With the route I have planned out, you should run into the smallest amount of trouble possible. Unfortunately, the chances are that you will have to fight off a few enemies here or there, but nothing you couldn't handle."

I said, "We're not survivors. Or killers. We just saw the real world for the first time yesterday. What makes you think we can handle this?"

"You must be survivors to some degree," Lucas asserted, "After all, how many other people made it out of your vault?" None of us said anything. He continued, "You also made it here to Megaton from your vault, which couldn't have been too close by. You carried guns and water out here without really knowing much about the land. I think you three are much like the Lone Wanderer in that you have good instincts, and instincts can save your life out here."

Jon asked, "When would we have to leave?"

"Yesterday would be nice," Lucas chuckled, "But in all seriousness, I need this delivered as soon as possible. No one's been interested so far, so if you take the job, I'd like you to leave by tomorrow."

Jon looked at me and Lucy, "What if Aaron, Jaclyn or Var shows up here while we're gone?"

Lucy said in agreement, "Yeah, they could show up anytime and we wouldn't be here."

Lucas jumped in, "If you have friends that you think might be coming, just tell me who and I can make sure they know you three were here."

I looked at Jon and Lucy, "If he told them we were coming back, they could just wait for us. Plus, this is the kind of job Gob was telling us about that will keep us out of debt. We'll even have caps to spare."

"That's true," Lucy said, "and we can be sure that when anyone we know makes it here, Lucas can pass the word along that we were here, too."

" _If_ they get here," Jon said in response to me and Lucy. "You guys are just assuming they'll come here like we did. What if they went the wrong direction? They might not have even made it out of the fucking vault. They might be dead."

I reassured Jon, "Well, let's at least assume they made it out. With that in mind, if they're out in the Wasteland but are not heading this direction, we'll have a better chance of running into them if we leave Megaton for a little while."

Jon gave in, "Alright. Fuck it. I guess we can try." He turned to Lucas, "But what about supplies? We don't have any sort of food, very little water, and just some small guns."

Lucas looked at all of us, and said, "So, are you three agreeing to the job?" We nodded. He smiled once again, "Wonderful. I can provide you with plenty of supplies. More food and water than you'll need. As for guns, I'll drop by Moira's place and tell her to expect you three in the morning. Just show up there tomorrow and she'll help ya out. For now, go get some rest and take it easy. You'll need all the energy you have. Once you're prepared tomorrow, meet me inside the front gates by… Let's say 10:30." We agreed to this, and he walked off.

After a few moments, I said, "Did we really just agree to that?"

"I guess so," Jon responded.

Lucy said, "I think that's how things are out here. You just find yourself in a new situation before you have the chance to realize it."

"Well," I said with a smile, "at least we'll be rich when it's all over."

"Rich for a while," Jon said. He sounded a bit doubtful, "We'll each have 5,000 caps, but even that will run out pretty easily when we pay for a room each night, buy food, and anything else we might need."

I replied, "That's true. But if we can get this job done, it'll at least keep our heads above the water for some time."

Jon spoke again, "I hope we do get the job done, we have no idea what kind of danger we're really in for. He didn't even tell us who we're delivering to or where exactly. We just know it's in downtown D.C."

Lucy reassured, "We'll make it. You two are both really good with guns, and I at least have this thing," she put her hand on the plasma gun at her side. "I'm not good at aiming or anything, but this thing does seem pretty… Fatal."

I smiled, "You're a pretty good shot too, babe. I used to sneak you into the firing range all the time in the vault, and you hit those targets pretty well."

She said back, "Yeah, let's just hope that we can hit live, moving targets. Possibly ones that are shooting back."

I really hoped we just had to face more mole rats once we were out there. If I had to kill an actual person again… What did we just get ourselves into?


	6. Chapter 6 - Back Underground

**Chapter 6 – Back Underground**

* * *

The following morning came far too quickly. I was not looking forward to facing the wasteland again so soon, and this time, I had a feeling we were going to face it for what it truly was. From what we had heard in the past, alongside some chatter from settlers in Megaton, there were much scarier things than just giant mole rats out there. I overheard one person telling another about some town that was losing people to Super Mutants nearly every day, often times children being dragged out of the town screaming as Mutants carried them off. Billy Creel told us about some sort of creature called a Deathclaw, and I didn't want to believe what he said about those. Yet, I could tell from his detailed description, alongside Gob's agreeing nods, that Billy was not making anything up. According to Gob, though, the most dangerous thing we could possibly encounter was other people. He said to trust no one, use our instincts, and never hesitate to shoot first. I was going to make sure I kept that in mind.

As Jon, Lucy and I were walking out of the saloon that morning to prepare for departure, Moriarty yelled after us, "You three best not die on me now, I'd be heartbroken! After all, how else am I going to get the caps you owe me?" I never turned to look at him, but I was sure he was standing with his arms crossed and with a stupid smirk on his face. I also knew he wasn't joking; he cared more for caps than anyone's wellbeing. Greedy dickhead.

I shielded my eyes against the morning sun as we shut the door behind us. I wondered if I'd ever get used to the brightness. I walked up to the railing and slid my gaze over the whole settlement, squinting. I paused briefly to marvel at the nuclear bomb at the center of the town. I still couldn't quite grasp why anyone would build a city around such an object. It just seemed rather unsafe. However, Gob did quietly mention to us that it was disarmed by the Lone Wanderer awhile back. We just weren't allowed to say anything about it, though, because it might upset some weird religious group called the Church of Atom. There was a man standing in some brown, stagnant water around the bomb, preaching some sort of bullshit to a few followers behind him. They actually looked upon the man attentively, soaking up every ridiculous word. Whatever made them feel better, I guess.

I said, "So, should we go to whoever this Moira person is first?"

Lucy answered, "Yeah, Lucas said she's the owner of Craterside Supply. I saw it down over there yesterday." Lucy led the way, prompting Jon and I to follow. She had a knack for remembering where places and things were located; this was a skill that I did not have.

Upon entrance, the first thing my eyes went to was the guard standing in the little shop. He looked pissed off, but not at anything in particular. I figured his face probably always looked like that. He had dark skin and black hair, carried an assault rifle on his back, and was smoking a cigarette. He spoke with the cigarette still sticking out of his mouth, "Don't try anything stupid, and I won't kill any of you."

Jon said with an irritated tone, "All we did was walk in, what do you think we're going to do?"

"Never seen you around here before. I don't like newcomers. Don't trust 'em. So you best ‑"

A higher-pitched voice interrupted, "Oh, would you leave them alone? They're new around here, and they don't know any better!" The guard mumbled the words "That's kind of my point…" but the woman continued in her more-than-enthusiastic tone, "Welcome! Oh my, aren't you three adorable? Aha!" We simply gave each other side glances and looked back at the woman. "Aw, I remember when the Lone Wanderer came into here looking just like you three! Dressed in a vault jumpsuit, armed with a cute little 10mm..."

I glanced at the weapon holstered to my side. I spoke, "Well, mine got me this far. I'm a good shot, not sure a bigger gun really matters."

The woman smiled, "Oh, I am sure you are the best shot in town, haha! But, that doesn't mean you couldn't use something a little more powerful, now does it? What are you going to do when there are too many enemies ahead of you? Why, all it takes is a good rifle and you can pop their little heads from afar without them ever seeing you! It's just wonderful!"

Jon spoke after a brief awkward silence, "So uh… are you Moira Brown?"

"Oh my goodness, I forgot to introduce myself! Yes, I am Moira Brown, but just call me Moira! I am just too excited to be talking to you three, I was expecting you! Lucas Simms came by last night and let me know to help you all out. It would seem he's covering all the costs for arming you up for your little mission!" She suddenly covered her mouth with her eyes widened, and then she continued with a whisper, "Sorry! I forgot that it's a super-secret mission. Aha!"

I asked, "So, how does this work? Are there certain weapons that Lucas paid for already?"

Moira lit up, "No, and that's what is so exciting! You three get to pick out whatever you think you'll need; guns and ammo and anything else your little vault-dwelling hearts desire! And I just send a little bill to Lucas afterwards!" She went behind the counter and began unlocking a large, rusty gun cabinet. She continued speaking while she fumbled with the lock. "That being said, I highly recommend that you stock up! If Lucas is paying - and trust me, he can afford it - then you'll want to get the best stuff we have here at Craterside Supply. Better weapons means you're more prepared, and more preparation means less dying, haha!"

The padlock fell free from the gun cabinet, and the two doors swung open with a metallic screech. Inside was an array of guns spanning across the entire cabinet, each set up vertically. There was also a shelf displaying various handguns, and the shelf below that appeared to have crates full of ammo. I could not quite see the bottom section of the cabinet, but just then Moira gestured for us to come around the counter. I saw once I walked around that this bottom area housed many explosives. Moira told us to have at it, and so we began picking up different guns, weighing them in our hands, and feeling them out while Moira commentated on the various pros and cons of each weapon.

I gravitated instantly to the scoped rifle, making sure to get more than enough of the .308 ammunition to go with it. As an additional sidearm to my trusty 10mm, I went ahead and grabbed a .44 Magnum as well. Jon, of course, went for the combat shotgun, filling a cloth bag Moira handed him with shotgun shells. Instead of a sidearm, he loaded up on grenades and a few frag mines. Lucy had grown to like her plasma pistol that she took from the Enclave guard in the vault, so to compliment this, her bigger gun of choice was a plasma rifle. Moira warned her that its affects could be quite "drastic" when hitting a target, and Lucy simply told her that she was very aware. This warranted that she grab as many microfusion cells as she could. The last thing we each did was pick out an outfit of leather armor that fit us, putting it on directly over our jumpsuits as per Moira's recommendations.

Once we were satisfied and sure that we were locked and loaded, we thanked Moira profusely for all of the help she was offering. She simply laughed - almost hysterically - and assured us that she was only doing it because Lucas would pay her generously. She also added that she loved "helping little vault-dweller birds fly from the nest." I was not sure what exactly she meant by that, but I simply went with it and thanked her again as we carried our new, precious goods outside.

Once we closed the door to Craterside Supply behind us, Lucy set her bags down beside her and said, "How are we supposed to carry all of this in the wasteland?"

Jon said in agreement, "Yeah, I don't know. We haven't even got the food yet, either."

I wasn't sure about this myself. I was just glad that our larger guns at least came with slings so that we could carry them easily and have easy access to them when the need arose. As for the ammo and other items, we were going to need bigger backpacks than what we had in our rooms. I suggested that we just go to the front of the town where Lucas wanted to meet so we could figure it out from there.

We made it to the front gates by 10:30 as Lucas had requested, and to our relief, he had already prepared each of us a large travelling backpack packed with food and water. There was plenty of extra space for our ammunition and explosives, but these items definitely maxed out the room that was left in the backpacks. I was wondering what else Lucas might do for us before departure; it was all seeming too good to be true at this point. How much worse was the wasteland than what we'd experienced so far?

"Alright," Lucas spoke in his deep voice, "Here's the rest of your instructions." He pulled out a blank, slightly crinkled piece of paper, attached it to a clipboard that he took from a bag, and began drawing as he talked, "So, here we are in Megaton. I want you three to head east until you come across the Super-Duper Mart. That's your first landmark." We nodded and mentioned that we saw it during our initial journey to Megaton. "Good. Once you see that, you'll cross a bridge that you likely also crossed on your way here from your vault. Now, to get you into Downtown D.C. as quickly and safely as possible, I'll need you to hear me out for this next part. Your intuition might tell you that simply walking east once on the other side of the bridge and straight into the city is the best way to go. You would be wrong. The city, despite the efforts of the Brotherhood of Steel and the Lone Wanderer, is still littered with Mutants and raiders. In fact, they're coming out further than usual, so they're even being encountered on the outskirts of the downtown area more frequently the normal. That being said," he drew an arrow to the left instead and continued, "I want you to go west just a little bit, until you find a place called Farragut West Metro."

"Why would we go the opposite direction?" Jon asked.

Lucas answered immediately, "Well, to reiterate, going straight into the city is just too dangerous. Also, there's a lot of rubble and physical obstacles that might divert your course in a manner that'd it would take a very long time to reach your destination, all danger aside. But, your question is, how could going west get you to the east, and faster no less? It's simple: the metro takes you underground."

I thought for a moment, and then recalled, "Oh, I think I remember something about this in school. There used to be some sort of transportation running underground in D.C., right?"

"That's right," Lucas said, "And I want you three to take those underground tunnels right into Downtown D.C. You'll skip most of the danger by walking right under its nose, and end up very close to your destination on the other side."

Lucy asked, "But there will still be danger in the tunnels too, won't there?"

Lucas responded with some concern in his voice, "Well, yes. And no small amount of it there, either. But the tunnels have still proven to be much safer for travel than anything else. The Lone Wanderer and many other wastelanders have used this technique for a long time now. It will be very dark, and there's no short supply of ghouls down there, that's for sure. But they're much easier to handle than Mutants. Not to mention, underground you'll only come across isolated groups of raiders, while the path above ground will lead you into entire settlements of them."

"Ghouls?" Jon questioned, "You mean like Gob over in the saloon?"

"No," Lucas replied sharply, "Nothing like Gob. I mean feral ghouls, son. Ghouls that are long gone from being anything like humans, both physically and mentally. They have keen ears, and their bites and scratches can do quite a number on you." Lucas saw the sudden look of worry on our faces, so he chuckled and added, "But don't you kids worry, though. They fall easy. Doesn't take much at all. Plus, you three strike me as resourceful, so you will be just fine. Just be smart and use your instincts." That was not the first time someone had told us that, so I tried to take it to heart.

I spoke, "You say these tunnels lead to our 'destination', but you didn't say where that was."

Lucas raised the pencil in his right hand and said, "Ah, yes. Of course. So, once you're in the tunnels, you'll want to navigate to the Friendship station. Those Pip-Boys you have there should help you quite a bit with this task. This is where you'll head back above ground. Once you get up there, a nice sweep of the area with a scope or some binoculars should tell you the right direction."

We waited for a moment before Jon asked, "Wait… That's it? That's all you're giving us?"

"I am afraid that's all I can say for security reasons, but rest assured that you will know exactly where to go once you give the area a good look-around." Lucas tried to smile.

I insisted this time, "Come on, you've got to give us more than that. Are we looking for a certain building? A person?"

Lucas's voice was firm this time, "There will only be one point of interest in the area, so go towards that. You'll know it when you see it. You're just going to have to trust me. Unless, of course, you'd like to give up the supplies and let me find someone else to pay 5,000 caps…"

I responded, "Alright, alright. We'll trust you on this."

Lucy added, "And thank you for all the help you've already given us. We've only been out here a couple of days, and you offered us this opportunity to get a great start in the wasteland."

"It's my pleasure," Lucas tipped his hat, "but don't thank me just yet. You kids be safe out there, get back here after delivering the envelope, and then you can thank me. Speaking of which…" he reached inside his brown trench coat and removed a sealed envelope, handing it to me, "Don't tamper with it or open it, else the whole mission is useless. My recipient won't accept damaged letters." I packed the envelope away safely into a pocket inside of my backpack. Lucas added, "Also, don't think you're going to walk out of here with those brand-new weapons and just 'happen' to never make it back here. If you wander off course intentionally, I will know." He eyed us closely for a moment before saying, "If you have no more questions, then I can let you be on your way."

I looked at Lucy, then Jon, and said to Lucas, "I think we're as good to go as we can be."

"In that case, good luck out there. I'm counting on all of you." Lucas began to turn away.

"Wait," Lucy stopped him, "don't forget that if you see more Vault 117 dwellers come in here, please tell them we were here. And that we're coming back." Lucas simply half-turned around, smiled slightly, and nodded his head before continuing to walk away.

Jon said quietly, "I think he really gets a kick out of his own little 'mysterious cowboy' getup."

I commented in a low voice, "I kind of love it and get weirded out by it at the same time."

Jon said in response, "Maybe we need some sort of badass persona to dress up as."

I added, "Maybe we'll wear leather jackets and give our group an awesome nickname, like… the Vault Lizards. I don't know."

Jon agreed, "Yes, I like this."

Lucy said to us both, "You guys are so weird." She then turned and stepped up to the gates, which started to raise with a loud mechanical screech. Jon and I chuckled and followed up behind her. The barren landscape revealed itself before us, and we stepped out into to its ever-so welcoming embrace once again.

It was strange to be walking the same route that we took to get to Megaton in the first place so soon, only in the other direction this time. Every step we took was actually bringing us closer and closer to the vault we grew up in. It wasn't our destination, but I kept think about it as we traversed the seemingly endless stretches of desolate nothingness. Would I rather be back in the vault, before our friends and family were slaughtered by the Enclave in a rain of plasma? I wasn't so sure. I had always dreamed of leaving the vault, and my wish came true. Despite the wasteland's emptiness, it was certainly something to see in comparison to the metallic, subterranean walls which we used to walk. Yet, in the vault, we didn't have to walk for hours and miles in an unknown world with the potential that we would meet our fates to some starving raiders, or decaying, radiated corpses that were somehow not actually corpses, all just to make some money so we could afford the bare essentials of human life: food, shelter, and water. The vault had all of those things, and we hardly had to work for it. Did I love or hate the wasteland?

I pondered this and other things for the next few hours until we grew very close to our first destination. I knew we were nearly there because, for one, we had crossed the bridge already. On top of this, the area looked extremely familiar because we had obviously been there before. When we left hours ago, I checked my Pip-Boy map and immediately realized that we had actually used Farragut West Metro as a reference point the other morning when we first exited the vault. We did not actually see it, but it was very close to us on my map.

I couldn't wait to get my map more filled out as we spent more time in the wasteland; our Pip-Boys seemed to auto detect the land near us and store where we had been. All we had to do was add the location names and any other notes that we wanted attached to them. I had a very general map of the entire D.C. area uploaded on my Pip-Boy that I obtained from an academic database in the vault, but much of it was outdated and it did not have a lot of the location names. Not accurate ones, at least. I tried examining the area that we would be emerging from on the other end of the metro tunnels, hoping to figure out what "point of interest" Lucas might be sending us to. Unfortunately, nothing stood out to me.

The sound of automatic gunfire sounded far in the distance. It was not close to us, but it was still too close for comfort. All three of us placed our hands on our sidearm impulsively, ceasing to walk forward.

We remained silent, each of us leaning forward slightly as if it would help us hear and see more acutely. Jon said in a low voice, "Should we wait?"

"No," I answered, "I think we need to keep going. Farragut shouldn't be too far off, and we'll probably be better off getting underground than roaming out here in the open." I hoped I was right. With that, we kept walking forward, if very cautiously.

The city, or what was left of it, was in clear sight now. We weren't going to be walking through it, but we would be coming out of the tunnels right in the middle of it, and this was making me nervous. I could see that the density of the buildings increased as you looked further and further into the downtown area. I was both amazed by the structures we humans had so intelligently designed some two hundred years ago, and intimidated. Our own creations in the past actually made the present much more frightening. Anyone, or anything, could be lurking in there.

We came upon two dead bodies on the side of the road, and they had been dead for quite some time now. The stench was much worse than that of the general mix of scents we were exposed to in Megaton. There, it just smelled of dirt, body odor, and perhaps a little bit of chemicals. These bodies, though, were producing a strong smell of decay that far surpassed Megaton in repulsiveness. I nearly got sick, and I heard Lucy gag a couple of times. We all sort of glanced at the bodies, but only looked for as long as we needed to. What had killed them, and why? I suppose a purpose for killing in this world was a bit of a trivial topic.

Just a few minutes after we had past the corpses, Farragut West Metro finally came into sight. I figured we had to enter from the other side, because we could only see a sort of shattered glass awning type of thing, and on either side were little pillars that said "Metro Station" on the sides in gold lettering. Further out was a statue of a person standing inside of a ring, and the area was littered with countless destroyed automobiles. More distant gunshots from the inner parts of the city sounded, but we chose to ignore them completely this time.

As we walked around, Jon asked, "So, this is it?" I nodded.

Reaching the other side, we looked down the stairs that led into the tunnels. There was a chain-link fence, at the entrance, and beyond that was shear darkness. Just looking down there made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Lucy was looking the opposite direction, squinting her eyes. She said suddenly, "Guys, I see something over there. Two figures walking."

I stood next to her to match her line of sight, "Where?" She pointed towards a building that was on the other side of a sort of drop-off. I swung my sniper rifle from my back to my hands and raised the scope. Scanning the horizon where Lucy had pointed, I got a glimpse of something I had never seen before. "What the fuck?"

"What is it?" Jon asked excitedly.

I swallowed hard. What I was looking at was a huge, green-tinted creature bearing many human characteristics. It had oversized muscles and appeared to be carrying an assault rifle. It perfectly matched the descriptions I had heard for Super Mutants. I panned over to the right slightly. There was another Mutant, looking straight at me with a rifle. "Shit!" I grabbed Jon and Lucy by the arm at the same time and pulled them down to the ground with me, and simultaneously the crack of the Mutant's rifle sounded. The bullet whizzed right over us. Some small pieces of concrete landed next to us from the bullet's contact with a pillar.

"What the hell?" Jon exclaimed. Lucy had let out a small scream.

"We have to go down in the tunnel, right now," I insisted. I crawled down a few steps, prompting Lucy and Jon to do the same. Once I felt that I was covered, I stood to a crawl and walked the rest of the way down as quickly as possible. I started yanking on the gate of the rusty chain-link fence.

Someone up above the stairs to the metro yelled, "Hey, guys, over here!" and many gunshots followed. It sounded like someone else had stumbled upon the scene and was having a gun battle with the Mutants. The person who had yelled must have been calling to whoever they were traveling with.

Whatever was going on up there, I took the diversion as luck, because now we had the chance to keep moving. Lucy showed up next to my right side and helped yank the gate open, while Jon stood facing up the stairs as a precaution. We did this without speaking, and this little moment of fluidity strangely made me feel as if we had somehow started working as a true team. I led the way into the darkness, Lucy gripping the back of my leather armor in fear. Jon slowly backed himself through the gate, eventually turning around completely and joining alongside us.

It took no time at all before we were completely enveloped in darkness. "Collin, I can't even see you!" Lucy said frightfully, her voice echoing down the tunnel. I flicked on the switch for the flashlight on my Pip-Boy, and just a moment later I heard another click as Jon's lit up. Lucy hadn't put her Pip-Boy on yet, so I helped her get it out of her bag and insisted that she use it. She hated wearing hers normally, but she didn't resist at all given the lack of sight.

The lights we had only provided a small amount of visibility, allowing us to see maybe ten or fifteen feet around us. It was all we had, though. We stood still for a moment, then slowly started inching forward. We came upon an array of turnstiles, each picking one and slipping through. Despite two hundred years of aging and rusting, the metal arms actually still rotated surprisingly easily.

I heard Jon mutter, "Fuck," as he had stepped in a pool of mole rat blood. The mole rat's body lay in pieces just two feet away. That scent of decay from when we saw the two bodies outside was very much present down here, as well. The air was cool, but very stuffy. We were each now walking a few feet away from each other, spanning the width of the tunnel.

"Guys, look at this," Lucy said with a tone of astonishment. Looking over to where she stood, I could just see by the green-tinted light of her Pip-Boy that some sort of corpse was lying on the ground. I stepped closer and suddenly understood the surprise in here voice.

"Oh my god, what is that?" I wondered with disgust.

Lucy replied, "I'm pretty sure it's a feral ghoul." The creature had wrinkled, leathery skin that had rotted in multiple places. I knew that the rot was probably there while the thing was alive.

"I can't believe this place," Jon said, "It's…" He left the sentence unfinished.

I checked the local map on my Pip-Boy, and it was showing me the pathways of the immediate area. It did not have the entire tunnels mapped out yet, of course, so we were going to have to follow signs. For now, though, there was only one way to go.

About five radroaches in a side-room we were passing were alerted to our presence and scurried off, one running out of the room and between us, slipping into the shadows behind us. It startled me, and I nearly pulled my gun on it. This place was already getting to me.

"Look, a Nuka-Cola machine!" Jon said excitedly. The machine's lights were flashing in and out, alongside a few other lights in the part of the tunnel we had reached. This only added to the ominous, creepy vibe. I stepped over with Jon and began toying with the machine, pressing buttons and trying to see if it still did anything.

Just then, a sort of hiss-like growl came from up ahead, sounding like it came from two sources. Before I even had the chance to get my gun in hand, Lucy had somehow managed to pull up her plasma pistol and fire three times. Two globs of plasma landed on a ghoul's torso, leaving it on the ground. The third shot had missed, sizzling the wall behind a second ghoul that came into sight. The ghoul charged forward and knocked Lucy to the ground, jumping on top of her. She discharged another shot, hitting the ghoul's arm just before it swatted at her. I aimed my 10mm at the creature and fired twice. Both shots landed, hitting the ghoul in the chest with spatters of blood. This only seemed to knock it back some. It stood up, dead-like eyes fixated on me. I fired two more shots, again landing both, but to no avail. The ghoul stumbled one step towards me, but suddenly its head disintegrated into hundreds of piece with a deafening bang. Jon stood with his combat shotgun raised, arms shaking.

The wall and floor were painted with blood, and some droplets had sprinkled onto my face. Jon joked, "I guess that's why we shouldn't get distracted by shiny things like Nuka-Cola machines." I let out a short laugh, but I was too shaken up. How could that thing keep going after I fired so many shots into it? Lucy had even crippled its arm before I shot at it, and it didn't even falter.

I helped Lucy up, saying, "Those were some quick reflexes. How did you see the ghouls?"

"I didn't, really," she responded, "I only heard them at first, but I was pretty sure I could hear which direction they were, so I fired and hoped for the best."

"Well, that was pretty badass. Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, the one that got on me scratched my chest a couple of times, but the armor actually stopped it completely." I looked at her chest, and there were a few rows of scratch marks in the leather.

"Yep, your chest looks fine to me," I said in a playful tone, and Lucy smiled, giving me a little push with her hand. "I'm just glad you're okay, I thought that thing wasn't going to die." We kissed once, and then again, hugging.

Jon cleared his throat, "What? Me? Don't mind me, I'm not even here." Lucy and I laughed. Jon smiled, and then said, "So, should we keep going?" We nodded begrudgingly, and then began walking deeper into the tunnel.

By the time an hour passed, we had taken countless turns, gone down more stairs, and stumbled upon more and more corpses. Most of them appeared to be ghouls, but there were definitely some people every now and then. I was getting a headache from that rotten odor.

Lucy spoke as we followed some old train tracks, "It feels so weird to be down here."

I figured she must have meant something other than the fact that we were in a network of abandoned tunnels full of dead bodies and creatures that looked like they should be dead. I asked her, "In what way?"

"Well," she began, "we're underground again. Like, our entire world used to be a place kind of like this. In the vault, there was no sun, every hallway was narrow, and there were only so many places to go. This is exactly like that."

I thought about this, and it was true. Sure, the vault was full of biological life, and there were lights at least. But, was it actually full of life? I always felt somehow closed in or hindered while in the vault, and I don't just mean the small amount of space. At the time, I didn't even realize it was a small space. Only now did I have something to compare it to. What I mean is the way things were run. I only had so many choices of what I could do and where I could go, and I could see all of those choices right before me. Out in the wasteland, I could not possibly fathom the number of things we could decide to go and do. Being down here in these metro tunnels, however, were bringing back that feeling of isolation in the vault. I realized just how badly I hated it down here.

"The difference," Jon said suddenly, "is that we can walk out of here whenever we want. It's completely up to us."

That is something we never had in the vault. Nothing was really up to us. I didn't even want to be a guard when we lived down there, but I had to be. And how long was I going to be able live down there before I felt that I had exhausted all of my own decisions?

There were a few lights on up ahead, and I could see that the tunnel we were in opened up to a huge room with old train cars scattered about, as well as two sets of stairs that led up to a higher platform. Abruptly, something made a loud noise of metal-on-metal up on the platform. What followed was the same hiss-growl of the ghouls we encountered earlier, only this time, it sounded like a whole chorus of them. I faintly saw the movement of a dark mass of figures going between some of the train cars. Lucy suddenly gripped my hand very tightly. Jon whispered a profanity. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.


	7. Chapter 7 - Friendly Fire

_**To my old readers, if you're still out there... Long time, no see! And to the new, welcome! I hope you're enjoying the story so far. I have taken quite a long hiatus from writing this, I believe it's been a year and a half, or maybe even two years. I had some big life changes that sort of put all my projects on hold, namely... I have a baby now, which is awesome! Anyhow, I'm back, and I'm hoping to get chapters out on somewhat of a regular basis. This one might feel a little short, but I'm hoping it's good. Also, if you've made it this far, please consider leaving a review. Give me criticism or give me praise, as long as you are honest. Whatever you are thinking about the story, I love knowing what I could do better and I also love knowing what I'm doing right!**_

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 **Chapter 7 – Friendly Fire**

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The faint light on top of the platform in the room revealed that there were even more ghouls than I originally suspected. As the first mass began running towards the source of the loud noise, others that were further out in the room followed mindlessly behind. I thought there must have been at least thirty of them, and that's just counting what I could actually see in the large, cluttered room.

As the ghouls were stumbling up the stairs leading to the upper platform, Jon whispered, "What the fuck do we do now?"

"I don't know…" I responded.

"Well," Lucy began, "which way did we need to go next?"

Both Lucy and Jon were looking at me. I simply nodded my head towards the upper platform that all the ghouls were currently trying to occupy. Jon spoke again, "Shit. So… how do we do this?"

He and Lucy were looking at me again, as if expecting that I'd have some sort of answer. I said, "I… I really don't know. Lucas never said there would be this many…"

A voice yelled up above as the ghouls were finally reaching the top of the stairs and pouring onto the platform, "Holy fucking shit! Darren, go back! Go back, now! Kat, go with him!" Gun shots followed, the sound echoing throughout the large chamber we were in. Occasionally, because too many ghouls were trying to climb the stairs at once, one would fall off the side. Even ones that fell from higher up didn't seem to stop moving when they met with the cold, hard concrete. Rather, they writhed their decaying bodies around despite the fact that that fall would have probably killed or rendered unconscious any human that would have fallen from that same height. This resilience made me shudder again.

"Guys, we need a plan right now. Whatever is going on up there, those things are gonna come back this way eventually," Jon urged.

I was honestly at a loss. All I could say was, "We can't go back. That's for sure."

Lucy chimed back in, "These underground systems run to a lot of different stations, right?" We nodded. She continued, "I know we don't know where we'll come out at, but we could just look for a different exit straight through there." She pointed past the stairs up ahead and to the other side of the room, where there were two tunnels just like the one we were in.

More shots sounded above, and then the screams of a man presumably being torn apart by the ghouls. "What about when we get outside? Won't we be in some random part of the city? Anything could be there." Jon's voice sounded shaky. I didn't blame him, given our current circumstances.

"Anything is better than experiencing what's happening to whoever is up there..." I responded, cringing as the unknown man's screams grew more agonizing. There was a gargle, and then his screams suddenly stopped. My stomach was lurching. "Lucy, I like your plan. There is surely another way to our destination if we just head straight. Most of the ghouls are heading up that platform, if we make a run for it, maybe we can make it across."

Jon exclaimed, in a whisper, "Let's stop talking about it and fucking run, some of those ghouls look like they're starting to turn around!" With one look at one another, we knew we were in agreement.

"On my count," I said quietly, "One, two," I heard the bone-chilling hiss-growl of a ghoul come from right behind us, "Go!" The three of us jumped out from the cover we had been taking without looking back and ran as fast as we could. We each stumbled on rubble and garbage on the floor, but none of us completely fell over. I glanced at the stairs with all the ghouls on it to my left, and saw that a couple of them at the tail end of the mass had caught sight of us. They turned to run down the stairs, and this prompted another one to turn and see us. Then three more followed, then five…

Jon was muttering, "Shit, shit, shit!" almost in rhythm with his footsteps as we bolted across the floor. I glanced back, and saw that at least ten of the ghouls had turned to run after us. One of them was only about fifteen feet behind, targeting Jon. Jon looked as though he might turn to shoot.

"Don't, it'll attract the rest!" I said between breaths. We reached the tunnels on the other side, picking the right-most one on a whim. It was like the classic fork-in-the-road scenario, except that we had no time to waste deciding which tunnel we'd go into. I could still feel the ghouls right behind us.

Lucy said suddenly, sounding petrified, "Collin, I think the way is blocked…" I squinted, holding out my Pip-Boy to get the light to shine forward just a little more as I ran. We were running alongside an old train car, and just ahead it appeared to grow closer and closer to the wall, forming a corner with it. It appeared to have been derailed, and was resting diagonally in the tunnel such that it was completely blocking our path ahead.

I felt my stomach drop somehow more than it already had, seeing that there was nowhere to run. I slowed my running to a complete halt as I reached the dead-end. Lucy and Jon did the same. Knowing that we had no choice but to make a stand, I instinctually did a complete one-eighty turn on my heel, drawing my 10mm as I did so to face the oncoming ghouls. I immediately shot at the leading one that was right behind us, hitting it square in the forehead. Its body fell and slid with its own momentum, stopping just a few feet from us. The other 10 were reaching us rapidly, and I shot almost aimlessly at them. Lucy and Jon also began shooting. Jon's shotgun dropped three of them to the floor at once, two of which were still wriggling for just a moment but were quickly trampled by the other ghouls that were coming. Lucy's plasma pistol seemed to stop some of them right in their tracks, the light of the plasma briefly lighting up the narrow tunnel as she fired.

More ghouls must have turned after us, because they were still coming down the tunnel in large groups as we shot them down. We started to push them back a little, and I found time to reload. Jon stopped to reload as well, but Lucy still had some shots left to fire. By the time I was reloaded and held my gun back up, the ghouls had regained several more feet. It felt like we were just pushing back and forth as we would kill several ghouls, but then they would regain ground again as soon as we paused to reload. This tug-of-war took place over several rounds, which felt like an hour but I knew it probably hadn't even been a minute.

We reached a moment where we were all three reloading at once, and the moment this happened, I could feel all hope physically leave my being. The ghouls drew just close enough that I knew we had lost this standoff. Jon tried to fire off a couple more shots, but the ghouls poured past the imaginary line that we had been keeping them from crossing up until now. Lucy and I turned to each other, dropping our weapons. We both started to embrace one another. Jon let out an angry, war cry-like sound as he tried with all his power to shove more shells into his gun. His persistence was noble, but Lucy and I realized it was over the moment the ghouls had gotten too close. All in this fraction of a moment, I suddenly realized and accepted that I was born underground, and that I was about to die underground. It seemed I was never meant to live outside of the grave. Lucy and I had never held each other closer or tighter than in this moment.

Jon was a few feet in front of us, so the ghouls reached him first, tackling him to the ground. He yelled, and I wanted to help, but the ghouls would reach me and Lucy anyways in one more second. It was strange how the adrenaline allowed me to experience and process every passing millisecond, just like when using V.A.T.S. I squeezed my eyes shut to brace for impact, for death, still holding Lucy, situating my body such that the ghouls would reach me first. I knew that this was in vain, but I did it anyways. I felt a single, death-like hand claw at the back of my leather armor, and then I saw orange light pouring through my closed eyelids. I could feel a wave of heat on my exposed neck, and as a reflex threw Lucy on the ground as I jumped on top of her to cover her. The heat grew very intense, feeling as though a ball of fire was flying overhead. I still had my eyes squeezed shut, but the light was so bright that I could tell it really was some kind of fire. That sort of whipping, windy sound that fire produces was prominent. Over this sound I heard ghouls screeching, and I let my own yelp out as the back of my neck grew hot enough to burn. It was just then that the orange light disappeared and everything was suddenly dark again. A few more momentary bursts of orange light and heat occurred before sputtering out entirely.

I opened my eyes, realizing no ghouls were grabbing at my body or trying to claw me into pieces. Looking across the floor, there were about two dozen ghouls charred black, most completely lifeless. A few of them were still screeching and writhing for a moment, but then this died out very quickly, and they devolved into sizzling piles of charred flesh like the rest of them. At the end of the tunnel, where it opened up to the big room with the platform, I could just make out a figure that was reflecting my own Pip-Boy's green light back at me.

A bright flashlight switched on from the figure, shining right on me and Lucy, and it completely blinded me for a moment. A familiar voice spoke, "Holy… holy shit! Collin? Lucy?"

I knew that voice and responded in shock, "Var?" I realized the reflection I saw was probably Var's trusty robot, Thomas. Thomas hovered toward us down the tunnel, Var riding on the custom-installed seat that was attached to Thomas's front. Thomas sort of doubled as an assistant and a wheelchair for Var. I could also see that one of Thomas's robotic hands was currently retracted, revealing his high-powered flamethrower. The tip was blackened and emitting smoke.

Var spoke again, "I thought you guys were dead! What are you doing down here? How-"

I interrupted, "There's no time, we'll talk later," then ran over to where Jon was previously standing. I was sure there was no way he made it. Lucy followed and helped me pull two charred ghouls off of him. By some senseless amount of luck, Jon did not appear to be burned at all. He did, however, sustain more than one nasty gouge across his neck and shoulder. There was also a considerable amount of soot smeared across his clothing and face from the ghouls that we had just moved.

"Is that Jon?!" Var exclaimed.

Neither of us answered, as we were too focused. Lucy placed two of her fingers on Jon's neck, just under his jawbone. "His heart's still beating," Lucy said in a serious but relieved tone.

I sighed a breath of relief myself, and wasted no time, as I heard more ghouls up on the platform, "We've got to get somewhere safe, and he's probably going to need patched up as soon as possible."

Var slid off of the chair that was mounted on Thomas, walking in the unique way that he was able to despite his disability, heading back the way we had come, "Follow me. I'll walk. I know I'm not the fastest like this, but this way Thomas can carry Jon." Without a single synthetic word, Thomas hovered over and lifted Jon up, promptly following Var. Lucy and I immediately began following Var and Thomas, rounding the corner and heading down the other tunnel that we could have chosen to run into earlier. Var spoke again, quietly, "There's a room down this way, it was clear when I passed it earlier just before Thomas and I stumbled on that scene back there. Only has one way in, so we could easily hide out in there for a bit and probably stay out of danger."

We walked for only five minutes before Var turned into a side hallway, and then into the room he was talking about. We all filed in one at a time, me being the last. I took one last look down the hallway, hearing faint ghoul sounds echoing off of the tunnel walls from a distance, before I stepped in and shut the door behind me.

The room was somewhat small, but it was roomy enough for the four of us (five if you count Thomas). Lucy and I immediately grabbed a table that was in the room and shoved it in front of the door as a blockade, while Var instructed Thomas to lie Jon on an old mattress on the floor. Thomas lowered Jon gently, using just two of his three robotic arms to do so. The third arm was simultaneously adjusting the mattress's position on the floor. Without any instruction, Thomas hovered out of the way when he was done and went to the opposite corner of the room, knowing to stay out of the way.

Lucy went to work right away, pulling out the first-aid kit she had packed from our room back in the vault several days ago. She took out a stimpak, two large alcohol wipes, and a sealed package containing two large pills. She glanced around the room, spotted a small metal cup, pointed at it, and said, "Thomas, could you heat that cup up just a little to sanitize it?" Thomas didn't move at all until Var nodded to him.

Thomas lifted the cup, retracted his flame-thrower arm again, and ignited it, allowing only a small stream of fire to emit. After heating the cup and setting it next to Lucy to cool, he oriented himself towards Var and reported, "Var, sir. I would like to provide you a status update. My fuel levels for my internal ignition systems has been reduced to 1.76%. I will require fuel cells very soon to produce any more thermal expulsion." I was mildly amused that Thomas danced around using the word 'fire' by replacing it with seemingly more 'complex' terms. Var thanked him, and Thomas returned to hovering in his self-designated corner of the room.

Meanwhile, Lucy had poured two caps full of water from her water bottle into the metal cup, and now she was crushing up the two pills into the cup. She mixed it together as best as she could, creating a medicinal liquid out of the pills and water. She popped the plunger end off of the stimpak, now speaking, "I'm going to mix these antibiotics into here," she carefully poured the liquefied pills into the exposed end of the stimpak needle. None of it poured down the sides, as Lucy was quite adept with her hands due to her medical background in the vault. "With the stimpak medicine and this combined, we shouldn't have to be worried about Jon getting an infection, and he'll hopefully feel decent by tomorrow, assuming he regains consciousness." She proceeded to replace the plunger back onto the needle, shook it vigorously, and then held it needle-side up and pushed on the plunger just a little to release the air as she tapped the side of the needle. Without hesitation, she rolled Jon's sleeve up and sank the needle into his upper left arm. She pushed the medicine into his arm at a steady rate, then pulled the needle back out perfectly straight with surgical precision.

She then moved on to cleaning and bandaging the deep scratches on Jon's neck and shoulder, and I asked worriedly, "You think there's a chance he won't regain consciousness?"

She responded after tossing the soiled alcohol wipes into a bucket she had pulled over, "I'm very sure that he'll wake up. I don't see any serious injuries to his head, just a small bump, so I think that plus the shock and the pain are what caused it." I let out another sigh of relief, and I saw Var's eyebrows unfurrow just a little too. Lucy rinsed her hands with some of her water, and then applied some sanitizer from the first-aid kit. The room now smelled completely of rubbing alcohol, but this was actually welcome compared to the vaguely musky smell of dirt and decay. She stood up and stepped away from where Jon was resting, walking over to lean on me where I was half-sitting on a desk in the room.

Now feeling at least a little secure in this room and with Jon seeming to be okay for now, Var spoke up first, "So, holy fuck, it's good to see you guys."

"Yeah, agreed! Get over here man," Var and I met halfway in the room, partaking in a 'manly' hug. I patted Var on the back, and I knew he would have done the same if he weren't disabled and could reach. I stepped back to my original position of leaning on the desk with Lucy at my side, "So what in the hell are the chances that we found you down here? Or, I suppose I should say that you found us."

Var chuckled, "I was going to say, don't be taking credit, it was my robot that saved all three of your asses!"

I retaliated jokingly, "You almost killed us yourself, torching everything like that!" This reminded me that my neck was burned, and I reached to feel it. I hissed when my hand touched it, a slight surge of hot pain emanating from where my hand made contact. Lucy took a look at it, and without saying a word, she went and grabbed some ointment from the kit, applying it to my neck as Var and I talked. It felt soothed almost instantly.

"I actually had no idea you guys were back in that corner, it just happened to be the only perfect moment where most of the ghouls were all in one spot, so I took the opportunity." Var seemed apologetic that he didn't know we were behind that wall of petrifying creatures. I assured him that I understood completely, and added that he truly saved our lives. He spoke again, "So… You go first. Tell me how in the fuck you guys ended up down here?"

"It's actually a bit of a long story," I began, and proceeded to tell him everything, including as many details as possible. I told him about our escape, about dressing Lucy up in Enclave armor to get out of the vault cave, about Megaton and how we were already stuck paying an asshole caps in order to have a place to stay. I actually had to explain caps to Var, for he apparently hadn't yet encountered their usage as a currency enough to understand yet. I finished my story by telling him of our mission to deliver an unknown message to an unknown person at an essentially unknown location. He admired our newfound firearms before I asked him, "So, that's why we are down here. What about you?"

Var took a deep breath, "I don't think you're going to believe where I ended up." I leaned in to listen, already intrigued. "Remember Vault 101 from the radio, the one that the Lone Wanderer came from?" I stared at Var for a moment before I realized what he was saying, and he was being completely serious. My jaw dropped, and Var just stood there nodding for a moment.

I said, "Alright, explain this shit to me. You went to the Lone Wanderer's vault? How? Why?" Lucy had even stopped fidgeting with all of her medical supplies to listen.

"Well, it turns out, there's some interesting programming built into certain vault-issued Mr. Handy models." My expression had to look even more confused as Var said this. He continued, "When we got out of the vault, which is a whole other story, Thomas was of course carrying me as always. I was so tired though, I didn't even have the energy to give him instructions, so I sort of just let him pilot himself around. I thought we he was wondering aimlessly, but I was wrong." I looked over at Thomas, as if expected him to chime in or show an expression, except that he couldn't do the latter, obviously. "The particular model that Thomas is appears to have a relocation feature. Without me providing any sort of overriding instructions, apparently if a vault emergency is detected and evacuation is required, Mr. Handy's of this particular model are set to route to the next nearest vault. Now, I know that Thomas doesn't have a built in map in his memory, but he must have at least had some sort of coordinates embedded in his source code that correlated with Vault 101. Beyond that, I'm not sure how he actually navigated there."

"I'd bet it's the way he always navigates, using his sensors paired with some sort of breadth-first search pathfinding algorithm and a-" I stopped myself, realizing I was rambling.

Var continued his story, "Anyhow, so that's where Thomas took me. He hovered us into a cave much like the one leading to our vault, only this one was much shorter, and went right up to the Vault 101 door. Someone was actually manning the door and spoke with me through a speaker. After explaining where I came from and talking with the leader of the vault, they let me in." I stood listening intently, fully engrossed in the story. "So then, I was introduced to a few people. The leader's name was Amata. I ended up spending the most time with her. She was super hot, by the way." I smirked at this remark, and Var carried on, "Now, the story's about to get a little dark. Amata was actually the Lone Wanderer's childhood sweetheart. She actually was the one who helped him escape, as I guess their Overseer had gone crazy and was having residents killed due to some conspiracy or some shit. He wanted to have the Lone Wanderer killed as well because of his father's escape and involvement. It turns out though, that the Lone Wanderer ended up having to kill the Overseer, a.k.a… Amata's dad, to get out of the vault."

"Holy shit," I muttered. That was a lot to take in.

Var was bearing a saddened expression, "Yeah, so, the guy she grew up loving ended up killing her father, but she also fully recognized her father's craziness, so it was just an all-around bad situation. Just from talking to her so much, I could tell she was deeply disturbed by it. And, after the Wanderer left, their vault essentially devolved into complete anarchy for a while before Amata and some others were able to regain some control. Now, she runs the show and they're doing a lot better." Var paused to give me a second to process. "The Wanderer actually did revisit one time, but Amata just couldn't bear to see him given everything that had happened, so she asked him to just leave her and the vault to recover."

All I could say was, "Damn…" What happened to us at Vault 117 was certainly horrific, but this story Var was telling me almost made me feel like we had it easy.

Var added, "One thing I found interesting. Amata is allowing supply runs to be made outside of their vault, and she's even managed to negotiate some reoccurring trades with these Brahmin caravans that travel around. I'd say she's made good progress in the last year, or however long it's been since her vault was ruined. Or liberated, depending on how you look at it."

Var told a little more about Vault 101 and how he ended up leaving in search of us. When he told me that he was using these tunnels to make his way towards the place where Three-Dog resides, I exclaimed, "You know where to find Three-Dog?!"

He answered, "Well, I have a pretty good idea based on some directions that a trader provided me. It's downtown, called the GNR building. I figured I'd get to him and convince him to broadcast on his radio that I was missing some friends. But here I've miraculously found three of you, at least."

This led me to ask in a saddened tone, "Do… Do you know if my brother and Jaclyn made it out?" I couldn't believe that I hadn't asked earlier.

My heart sunk immediately when I saw Var's expression. He said blatantly, "I didn't see them at all during my escape." When he saw me looking down at my feet, he tried to encourage, "That could be a good thing, maybe they made it out way before I did."

I nodded, but I was still doubtful. I was sure that my luck had run out, given that I escaped our vault safely with Jon and Lucy at my side, and then magically ran into my childhood best friend in a random underground tunnel at a random location at a random time in the middle of the Wasteland. I didn't believe in fate or anything like that, so my lucky rolls of the dice must certainly be exhausted at this point.

Eventually looking at my Pip-Boy clock, I realized we had talked for nearly two hours as we caught each other up on our stories of escape and survival. It was already late enough that it was probably getting dark outside above ground. I mentioned this to Var and Lucy, and said, "With Jon still not awake and given the time, do you guys think it'd be safer to stay in here at this point until the morning?" They both agreed, and with that we promptly began setting up for sleeping. Lucy and I had a sleeping bag to share that came with the supplies Lucas provided, and we set Jon's up for Var since Jon was on the mattress that was found in the room. We then decided that at least one of us should stay awake to keep an ear out in case anyone - or anything - tried to enter the blockaded room.

I agreed to go first, standing up and leaning on the wall so that I wouldn't fall asleep. I decided to keep my 10mm in hand just in case. I had used a large amount of its ammo on the ghouls earlier, but I just felt comfortable with my trusty pistol. I stilled hadn't even fired my new scoped rifle yet, mostly because there had yet to be a good situation to use it, but I also just knew my 10mm well. The magnum that I selected also remained untouched still.

I watched as Lucy curled up in our sleeping bag, and I leaned down to kiss her before she rolled onto her stomach as she always does when sleeping. Standing back up straight, I prepared for a long two hours standing in the dark, listening for any sort of noise that might indicate danger. For the time being, though, I only heard the snores of my friends sounding throughout the room.


End file.
